Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, took another step on the road to recovery Friday with the sale of its perfume assets to US parfumier Coty. The $800 million (€637.4m; £438.45m) deal includes such brands as Calvin Klein, Cerruti, Chloe and Vera Wang.

Unilever has been trying to unload the residue of its perfumes business since it disposed of the Elizabeth Arden range in October 2000 as part of its controversial 'Path to Growth' scheme. Until Friday, however, the package attracted more curiosity than offers.

In addition to the $800m now fermenting in Unilever's bank account, New York-headquartered Coty is likely to make further deferred payments geared to future sales revenues. It reported sales last year in the region of $2 billion.

Coty's current range is celebrity-heavy with brands such as Jennifer Lopez. Later this year it plans to launch new fragrances adorned with the monikers ofSarah Jessica (Sex in the City) Parker and soccer icon David Beckham.

Data sourced from Wall Street Journal Online; additional content by WARC staff