French Billionaire Emmanuel Besnier’s Lactalis To Buy Fonterra Consumer Unit For $2.2 Billion
📝 usncan Note: French Billionaire Emmanuel Besnier’s Lactalis To Buy Fonterra Consumer Unit For $2.2 Billion
Disclaimer: This content has been prepared based on currently trending topics to increase your awareness.
Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd.’s Anchor brand milk on the production line at a processing plant in Takaanini, Auckland, New Zealand, on Friday, June 14, 2024. Photographer: Brendon O’Hagan/Bloomberg
© 2024 Bloomberg Finance LP
Lactalis—a French dairy giant controlled by billionaire Emmanuel Besnier and his family—agreed to buy the consumer unit of New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group for NZ$3.85 billion ($2.2 billion) deal.
Lactalis—which owns brands such Pauls, Vaalia and Oak—is also in talks to buy the Bega cheese licenses from Fonterra’s Australian unit, which would raise the total deal value to about NZ$4.2 billion, according to an announcement released by the Auckland-based company on Friday.
“Combining the Fonterra consumer business operations and market leading brands with our existing footprint in Australia and Asia will allow Lactalis to further grow its position in key markets,” Besnier, CEO of Lactalis said in the statement.
The deal includes Fonterra’s consumer brands such as Anchor, Mainland, and Anlene in the Asia Pacific, excluding Greater China. Under the agreement, Fonterra will keep supplying milk and other products to these businesses.
The transaction, pending regulatory and shareholder approval, is expected to be completed in the first half of next year. Fonterra said it’s selling the unit to focus on supplying dairy ingredients to companies such as Nestlé and Coca-Cola.
“Following a highly competitive sale process with multiple interested bidders, the Fonterra board is confident a sale to Lactalis is the highest value option for the co-op, including over the long-term,” Peter McBride, chairman of Fonterra said.
With an estimated net worth of $29.2 billion according to Forbes’ real-time data, Besrnier is among the wealthiest in France. He helms Lactalis, which was founded by his grandfather in 1933 in the southwestern French town of Laval. The company has since grown to become the world’s largest dairy producer by sales, operating in more than 50 countries and generating more than $30 billion in annual revenue.
