Company Execs Buy Numico's Unicity 33179

Company Execs Buy Numico's Unicity

OREM, Utah--Unicity Network, Royal Numico's multilevelmarketing association, announced July 17 it was purchased in a managementbuy-out. This comes as a surprise since Bohemia, N.Y.-based NBTY Inc., which hadalready bought Numico's Europe-based GNCs, signed a Feb. 28 letter of intent toacquire Unicity.

A management group of Unicity executives, headed by Paulo Bangerter and AaronWebber, initiated the buy-out. Bangerter, chairman and chief executive officer(CEO) of the acquiring company and former general counsel of Unicity Network,stated, "We are very pleased that Unicity Network will be held and managedby people who know and love this business. This event signals a renewedcommitment to our independent business owners around the world who have been thefoundation of our company's success."

The company will now be known as Unicity International Inc. "This isessentially an entrepreneurial business, and from today forward it will be bothentrepreneurially held and managed, enabling us to reach our significantpotential," said Webber, who will serve as co-CEO of the new company;Webber formerly served as Unicity's Executive VP of Global Sales. RichardBizzaro, CEO of Unicity Network since 1999, stepped down from his position afterthe acquisition.

The acquiring company also stated that additional announcements related tostructural improvements and long-term plans will be made over the next 60 days.Bangerter and Webber noted Unicity would continue its long-standing agreementswith Royal Numico for ongoing R&D support and manufacturing needs.

Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed, although Numico reported thesale would bring in a positive cash flow--taking into account proceeds,resulting tax benefits and other related costs--of $22.4 million by the end ofthe first quarter in 2004.