CVC Capital Partners Limited the private equity owner of Lipton Teas and Infusions B.V., is to sell a clutch of tea estates across east Africa to Sri Lankan conglomerate Browns Investments PLC (COSE:BIL.N0000). The sale includes plantations in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, which were acquired as part of CVC's £3.8 billion acquisition of Unilever's tea business in 2022. The Kericho plantation in Kenya - where the predominantly female workforce reportedly faced abuse and exploitation under Unilever's stewardship - is among those being offloaded by CVC to Browns.

Browns - which will now sell 87 million kg of tea annually - has agreed to grow to a new set of standards "covering quality, social and environmental protections", Lipton said. The companies would together "raise tea quality globally and accelerate the application of responsible farming methods across the industry to drive sustainable growth", Lipton added.