Business: Lever Bros.

Margarine is a butter substitute made from vegetable oils. Soap is a cleansing agent also made from vegetable oils. Last week buttery oil and sudsy oil flowed together in a merger of a great margarine company and a great soap company. The margarine company was Margarine Unie, a Dutch concern which, with its British affiliate, Margarine Union, is Europe's largest margarine producer. The soap company was Lever Bros., which, with some 200 associated companies, is world's largest soap maker. Inasmuch as both Margarine Union and Lever Bros, control their sources of raw materials and also operate chain store systems through which their finished products reach the consumer, the merger represented one of the largest and most integrated of the world's provision trusts. Combined capital of the two companies is $301,000,000; their shares have a market value of $800,000,000. The merger (effective Jan. 1, 1930 on a share-for-share basis) will involve "no alteration in conducting the business of either or- ganization."