Anglo-Dutch food to detergent group Unilever has finally ended its ties with the Lever family who founded the British half of the company in 1886.

Unilever said on Monday it had paid £715m for the the rights left in family trusts by William Hesketh Lever which are convertible in 2038 into 70,875,000 Unilever Plc ordinary shares.

The payment is equivalent to £10.09 per ordinary share and represents a discount of 63% to the closing share price on Friday May 16, 2014, the company said.

Simplification

‘This is another step in the simplification of Unilever’s capital structure, making Unilever easier to understand,’ CFO Jean-Marc Huët said in a statement. ‘It also eliminates ahead of time the burden of a significant dilution of shareholders’ interests.’

William Lever and his brother James set up British soap company Lever & Co in 1886. When he died in 1925, he left a large number of Plc shares in various trusts, Reuters news agency reports.

In 1930, Lever merged with Dutch margarine company Nederlands Margarine Unie to form Unilever.