What's going on?

Anglo-Dutch foods giant Unilever said on Thursday that it would be selling off its famed margarine business and was spreading itself elsewhere (tweet this). It�s one way that Unilever is looking to turn things around after it rejected a takeover bid from one of its biggest competitors.

What does this mean?

Back in February, Warren Buffett�s Kraft Heinz, a massive food conglomerate that sells stuff like Heinz Ketchup and Kraft Mac �n� Cheese, made an offer to buy Unilever for $143 billion. Unilever said that offer wasn�t big enough and rejected it outright � but its CEO later said it was a �trigger moment� for the company to rethink how its business could be run more efficiently. On Thursday, Unilever presented that plan to shareholders.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: If a company increases its borrowing, shareholders can make more money.

Unilever said that it wants to start borrowing a lot more money than usual. Since Unilever can borrow money at quite a low interest rate, it can use that relatively cheap money to pay its bills � and therefore pass on more of its profits to shareholders. The downside is that taking on more debt makes Unilever a riskier company � if it can�t pay it back, then its lenders could take control and wipe out the shareholders (although that doesn�t appear to be a major risk, given its current financial health).

For the stock: Unilever is aiming to become a more profitable company that pays more cash to its shareholders.

Along with borrowing more cash, Unilever also announced on Thursday that it would increase the amount of money it paid out to shareholders (a.k.a. dividends) and would spend �5 billion buying back its own stock (which is a lot and means the remaining shareholders will own proportionately more of the company). It�s also cutting costs by eliminating some layers of management and selling its slow-growing margarine business with the aim of boosting profits.