The Polka-Unilever Merger:

A suitable example of a merger that took place in Pakistan would be that be of the Unilever-Polka
merger. Unilever acquired the shares of Ambrosia International Ltd., Mehran International Ltd., and
Pakistan Industrial Promoters Ltd., which form what is often called the Polka group of ice-cream
companies.

Polka is the name of ice-cream that emerged prior to the 90s and was officially the first ice-cream
manufacturers in Pakistan. The logo, comprised of three children indulgently licking ice-cream, was a
common image in every Pakistani household in the pre-90s epoch. The Polka group had three factories
in Hub, Karachi and Lahore, respectively. It employed more than 700 people and had a combined
turnover of some Rs. 725 million in 1994, according to the data supplied by the firm itself. Of the three
companies of Polka groups, Pakistan Industrial Promoters (Pvt) Limited (PIPL PIPL Port Isabel Public
Library (Port Isabel, TX) was incorporated in 1970, the second factory was manufactured in Lahore,
named Mehran International Limited (Pvt) (MIL) which was incorporated in 1975 and ultimately, a
branch was inaugurated in Karachi under the name of Ambrosia International Limited (Pvt) (ALL) which
was incorporated in 1984 and has a factory in Hub. Ambrosia is a public limited company while the other
two are private limited companies. Products of the triad were marketed under the Polka brand name.
AIL also produced Movenpick under license.

On the other end, Unilever's existing interest in Pakistan includes Lever Brothers (Pakistan) Limited
which manufactures and sells a broad range of consumer-products. Unilever is also the largest ice-cream
manufacturer in the world with sales of over [pounds] 3 billion from over 50 countries.

In 1994, Lever Brothers Pakistan appeared on the scene and tried to acquire Polka Ice Cream for a hefty
amount of Rs 600 million. Polka refused the bid and instead demanded Rs. 1 billion to close the deal. But
one year after the launch of Wall's Ice Cream by Lever Brothers in 1995, Polka approached Wall's with
an offer to merge the two companies. Wall’s accepted and subsequently, Polka was merged into Wall’s.

At the time of the merger, the total production of Polka ice-cream in Pakistan was 13 million tons while
that of Walls ice-cream was four million tons. Unilever's international expertise in ice-creams and Polka's
long experience of the Pakistan ice-cream market are expected to bring significant benefits to the
Pakistani consumer. Unilever will continue to develop and support both its Walls brand and the Polka
brand and will invest further in the Polka business to improve the manufacturing operations.

References:

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19330882.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_Polka_Ice_cream_failed_in_Pakistan