MUMBAI: The world‘s second-largest consumer-goods company should try to acquire Colgate-Palmolive Co, if it wants to increase sales growth in emerging markets and enlarge its personal-care unit, says an analyst at UniCredit SpA.

In a note dated 7 February, Nicolas Sochovsky, a London-based analyst at UniCredit, wrote that Colgate would probably cost about $55 billion. This would be 50 per cent more than its current market value of $36 billion.

The Colgate stock is trading at nine times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and as cheap as it has been in a decade, Sochovsky wrote.

Acquisitions would be one of the quickest ways for Unilever to fulfill its target of doubling revenues, wrote Sochovsky.

Sochovsky also wrote Unilever could raise 10 billion euros of equity that can partially finance Colgate‘s acquisition. This can lead to an estimated debt-to-equity ratio of 3.7 times in the opening year of the deal, he said.

However Sochovsky also wrote that the debt can be reduced if Unilever is able to sell assets such as Colgate‘s Hill‘s pet food operation and Unilever‘s oral care operation.