Unilever could be forced to hold onto a multi-billion pound slice of its ice cream empire, according to senior City sources, as the sheer size of the operations make it difficult to find a buyer. The consumer goods giant is attempting to offload brands including Magnum, Wall’s and Ben & Jerry’s as part of an elaborate corporate clean-up exercise. Valued at as much as £15bn, bankers say the ice cream operations are so large that a full takeover would be beyond even the deep-pocketed private equity firms and Middle Eastern state-backed funds that are circling the business. The only way to make a deal affordable is if Unilever brings down the price tag by retaining a significant minority stake, it is believed. Even then, it is expected that buyers will have to team up in bidding consortiums in order to assemble the required firepower. Retaining a minority stake would reduce the risk of Unilever being accused of selling the division on the cheap – a charge it has faced in the past when the company has sold parts of its sprawling portfolio of household labels. “Think of it as an anti-embarrassment clause,” one City source said. Unilever sold its spreads...