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Unilever agreed to combine its food business with spice maker McCormick. (Donald King/AP/File)

Unilever Plc will freeze hiring globally for three months as it grapples with higher costs due to the Iran war.��

The move will be in addition to the maker of Dove soap’s wider cost-cutting including reducing head count and changing bonus structures.

“Reflecting the uncertain external environment, we have decided to put in place a temporary pause on our recruitment,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain an agile business and will always adjust our plans as necessary.”

The move also comes as��Unilever agreed to combine its food business with spice maker McCormick & Co. in a $44.8 billion deal that will create a global seasonings, sauces and condiments company.

Under the agreement, McCormick will pay the Anglo-Dutch company $15.7 billion and the equivalent of $29.1 billion McCormick shares for most of Unilever’s food business. That will leave Unilever and its shareholders with 65% of the combined entity, including McCormick brands like French’s mustard.

The deal is the biggest in the histories of both companies and will help recast Unilever as a global leader in beauty, personal and home care while turning McCormick into a bigger competitor in the global packaged food business.

Today, we announced an agreement to combine Unilever’s Foods business with , creating a scaled, global flavour powerhouse and positioning Unilever as a pureplay HPC business.

Find out more — Unilever (@Unilever)

The transaction will be carried out through a so-called Reverse Morris Trust, a type of merger that’s designed to be tax-free, and has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies.��

Shares of Unilever, which has a market value of about 99 billion pounds ($131 billion), fell as much as 4.4% in London. McCormick, which is worth $14.4 billion, fell 6.8% in premarket U.S. trading. As of the last close, the stock has fallen 21% this year.��

Unilever has been selling food for nearly 100 years. In addition to global brands like Hellmann’s, it owns smaller regional products like Maille Dijon mustard and Marmite spread.

The transaction is a��highly ambitious move��by McCormick, which is best known for its red and white spice containers. McCormick is a much smaller company whose entire business only generates half the sales of Unilever’s food arm.��

Consumer companies are facing soaring costs due to the conflict in the Middle East, as freight and ocean liners add surcharges to move goods due to surging energy prices. Plastic packaging and ingredients for products including detergent and shampoo are also becoming more expensive to produce.��

Unilever could be especially vulnerable to the Iran war, Morgan Stanley analyst Sarah Simon said in a note last week, because its ambitious volume growth targets rely on countries such as India — a nation highly exposed to the increased costs and lower availability of liquefied natural gas.

CEO Fernando Fernandez inherited a major cost-cutting drive when he took over last year. His predecessor laid out plans to save 800 million euros ($918 million) in three years by losing 7,500 jobs, and Fernandez has said he wants to cut around 200 managers to tackle “mediocrity” in the company.