Unilever continued its 15-month divestiture spree by selling its European frozen foods business to Permira, the latest in a wave of cross-border food-related mergers.

The price of $2.2bn (€1.73bn) at 9.9 times ebitda is considerably higher than the $1.7bn the business was expected to fetch when Unilever announced in February that it had hired Goldman Sachs to sell the unit. The division includes the Captain's Birds Eye and Iglo brands.