Alberto-Culver Announces the Completion of the Sale of Cederroth International

MELROSE PARK, Ill., July 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The board of
directors of the Alberto-Culver Company (NYSE: ACV), a leading manufacturer
and marketer of personal care products including TRESemme, Alberto VO5, Nexxus
and St. Ives, today announced the completion of the sale of Cederroth
International to CapMan, a leading Nordic based private equity firm.
Alberto-Culver acquired the Cederroth International business in the early
1990's. The Cederroth business, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, has been
successfully operated as a stand-alone, wholly owned subsidiary of
Alberto-Culver. Cederroth manufactures and markets a diversified group of
consumer products in the Nordic region and parts of Europe with only a portion
of their brands competing in beauty care categories.
Alberto-Culver's President and Chief Executive Officer, V. James Marino,
said, "The completion of this transaction is a win for both organizations.
The Cederroth business was a solid contributor to our growth over the years,
but given its diverse product portfolio and beauty care being a relatively
small percentage of the business, we felt it best to pursue a divestiture.
CapMan, with their local presence and consumer products experience, can
provide greater focus and attention to the Cederroth business. For
Alberto-Culver, we can now devote more attention to continue to grow our core
beauty care brands TRESemme, Nexxus, Alberto VO5 and St. Ives."
Alberto-Culver Company manufactures, distributes and markets leading
beauty care and other personal care products including TRESemme, Alberto VO5,
Nexxus and St. Ives in the United States and internationally. Several of its
household/grocery products such as Mrs. Dash and Static Guard are niche
category leaders in the U.S. It is also the second largest producer in the
world of products for the ethnic hair care market with leading brands
including Motions and Soft & Beautiful.
CapMan is one of the leading alternative asset managers in the Nordic
countries and manages Nordic funds with approximately EUR 3.0 billion in total
capital. CapMan has four investment areas (CapMan Buyout, CapMan Technology,
CapMan Life Science and CapMan Real Estate), and each of them has a dedicated
team and funds. Altogether CapMan employs 120 people in Helsinki, Stockholm,
Copenhagen and Oslo. CapMan was established in 1989 and its B shares are
listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange since 2001.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are
based on management's current expectations and assessments of risks and
uncertainties and reflect various assumptions concerning anticipated results,
which may or may not prove to be correct. Some of the factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections
contained in such forward-looking statements include: the pattern of brand
sales; competition within the relevant product markets; loss of one or more
key customers; loss of one or more key employees; inability of efficiency
initiatives to improve the company's margins, such as the decision to close
the manufacturing facility and relocate the commercial office in Puerto Rico;
increases in costs of raw materials and inflation rates; risks inherent in
expanding in existing geographic locations and entering new geographic
locations; risks inherent in acquisitions, divestitures and strategic
alliances; adverse changes in currency exchange rates; events that negatively
affect the intended tax free nature of the distribution of shares of
Alberto-Culver Company in connection with the separation of the consumer
products business from the beauty supply distribution business on November 16,
2006; the effects of a prolonged United States or global economic downturn or
recession; changes in costs; the costs and effects of unanticipated legal or
administrative proceedings; the risk that the expected cost savings related to
the reorganizations and restructurings may not be realized; health epidemics;
adverse weather conditions; loss of distributorship rights; sales by
unauthorized distributors in the company's exclusive markets; and variations
in political, economic or other factors such as interest rates, tax changes,
legal and regulatory changes or other external factors over which the company
has no control. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of
this press release, and there is no undertaking to update or revise them as
more information becomes available. Additional factors that could cause
Alberto-Culver's results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements can be found in the Company's 2007 Annual Report on
Form 10-K filed on November 28, 2007 with the SEC and available at the SEC's
internet site (http://www.sec.gov).
SOURCE Alberto-Culver Company

Doug Craney of Alberto-Culver Company, +1-708-450-3117