Meiji, Lactalis, Saputo, Warburg may bid in Fonterra's $2.4 billion sale, sources say
HONG KONG/SYDNEY :Companies including Japan's Meiji, French group Lactalis and Canada's Saputo are considering bidding for the units dairy giant Fonterra is seeking to divest, two sources with knowledge of the matter said this week.
The companies would be bidding for Fonterra's global consumer businesses consisting of the operations and marketing of brands such as Mainland and Anchor butter, Kapiti ice cream and cheese and the Anlene powdered milk supplement. The sale also includes the Fonterra Oceania and Fonterra Sri Lanka units with operations from milk collection to processing to supplying products to consumers and food-service companies.
A deal for the businesses Fonterra is divesting could be valued at around NZ$4 billion ($2.37 billion), the two sources said.
U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus is also interested in buying the businesses, said one of the two sources and a third source with knowledge of Warburg's interest.
New Zealand-based Fonterra announced in November a dual track plan to either sell the units or to list them through an initial public offering so it could focus on its core activity of processing milk at home.
The company hopes to wrap up a sale by the middle of this year but is still looking at the IPO process, according to the first two sources.
The three sources declined to be named as the matter was private.
Fonterra said on Wednesday the process is confidential and cannot comment. Lactalis and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. Meiji said it is unable to make an official comment.
Saputo did not respond to a request seeking comment.
Fonterra is concurrently pressing ahead with IPO. In February, it named key management team members for the possible company, which it will name Mainland Group if the IPO route is chosen.
Before making a final decision on a sale or IPO, the company plans to seek a vote from its farmer shareholders for their preferred divestment option.
The operations being considered for a possible divestment accounted for about 19 per cent of Fonterra's operating earnings in the first half of fiscal 2024, it said in May 2024.
Shares of Fonterra have climbed 8 per cent so far this year, giving it a market value of around $4.3 billion, LSEG data showed. The company's shares were down 0.2 per cent on Thursday at NZ$4.53.
($1 = 1.6866 New Zealand dollars)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Britain says US agrees on need to implement tariff deal soon
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds walks at Downing Street, on the day of a Cabinet meeting in London, Britain, January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shake hands at a press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Britain says US agrees on need to implement tariff deal soon LONDON/PARIS - Britain and the United States have agreed on the need to implement a tariff relief deal between the countries as soon as possible, the UK government said, after their trade envoys met on the eve of impending higher tariffs on steel. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to reduce tariffs on British imports of cars and steel to the United States last month, with Britain agreeing to lower tariffs on beef and ethanol. But a delay in implementing the deal means steel tariffs may go up before they come down, as Trump last week said that tariffs on imported steel would rise to 50% from 25% starting on Wednesday. Industry body UK Steel said it understood that British producers were likely to be affected, which would be a "body blow" to the sector. British trade minister Jonathan Reynolds met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday to discuss the pace of implementation of the deal. "The pair discussed their shared desire to implement the Economic Prosperity Deal, including implementing agreements on sectoral tariffs as soon as possible," Britain's trade ministry said in a statement after the meeting. "The pair agreed that businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic must start to feel the benefits of the deal soon, with both sides committing to work closely to make that happen." Greer's office did not have an immediate comment. Before the meeting Starmer's spokesperson said that, once implemented, the deal with Washington would eliminate tariffs on the "majority of steel products" exported to the United States, and that "we'd continue to expect that to be the case" regardless of the 50% tariff announced by Trump. He also said that industry minister Sarah Jones was meeting with representatives from the steel sector on Tuesday. Asked earlier if the 50% tariffs would go ahead on Wednesday, Greer, speaking French with reporters in Paris, said: "We'll see." Reynolds is on a three-day trip to Paris and Brussels. After meetings with Group of Seven and OECD counterparts in Paris, he will hold talks with EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic. Britain struck deals with the U.S. and the European Union - its two biggest trading partners - last month, but both are political pacts rather than formal trade agreements, and the details of their implementation have not been set out. With the EU deal, plans to remove red tape on the food sector are yet to be finalised. In advance of that agreement coming into force, Britain on Monday said it would scrap border checks on fruit and vegetables imported from the EU that had been due to be effective beginning in July. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Straits Times
Katong Plaza and Novotel on Kitchener Rd to be redeveloped
Katong Plaza and Novotel Singapore on Kitchener hotel were in the past two years sold to new owners. ST PHOTOS: AZMI ATHNI, ARIFFIN JAMAR New hotels to replace Katong Plaza and Novotel hotel in Kitchener Road SINGAPORE – The Novotel Singapore on Kitchener hotel and Katong Plaza are set to be replaced by new hotels. Both properties date back to around 1981, with the Kitchener Road hotel branded with different names along the way. They were in the past two years sold, and the new owners have recently secured at least provisional planning approvals from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Worldwide Hotels subsidiary Midtown Development has permission to redevelop the Kitchener Road property into a hotel with 1,625 rooms and 1,214 sq m of retail space. The hotel opened in 1981 as President Merlin Hotel – a part of the President Hotel and Shopping Complex that also included the President Shopping Centre which opened in 1970. The hotel was later rebranded as New Park Hotel in 1990 after a $30 million facelift. In 2007, it became Parkroyal on Kitchener Road, while the shopping centre was demolished in 2017 to make way for Centrium Square. In 2023, UOL sold Parkroyal on Kitchener Road for $525 million to Worldwide Hotels, a Singapore-based firm that owns chains such as Hotel 81 and Hotel Mi. The hotel reopened in November that year as the 543-room Novotel Singapore on Kitchener , a brand under French multinational hospitality company Accor . The hotel is on a freehold 7,780.1 sq m site and has a gross floor area of 37,827.71 sq m. A spokesperson for Worldwide Hotels told The Straits Times on June 3 that it is unable to share further details about the new hotel. Katong Plaza in Brooke Road, which opened around the start of 1981 , is set to make way for a hotel with 374 rooms and 537 sq m of retail space. The strata-titled mixed-use development near Marine Parade MRT station with 132 retail units and 14 residential apartments was in 2024 sold to Fragrance Group for $180 million . At the time of the sale, the building's owners had outline permission from the URA to convert it for hotel use. The existing building is on a freehold 3,162 sq m site and has a gross floor area of 9,488 sq m. The Fragrance Group did not respond to requests for comment. When ST visited the building on May 30, most of the retail tenants had vacated their units. Some were packing up and said they had to leave by end-June. A notice dated April 16, put up alongside minutes of the building's collective sale committee's meetings, stated that owners choosing to stay in the building until July 2025 will be responsible for covering all expenses such as air-conditioner and lift maintenance fees. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner John Ng, 70, who has operated a clinic in the mall since April 2006, said he is disappointed to leave behind neighbours of almost two decades. 'We all knew each other and were very friendly. Everyone trusted each other and I could leave my clinic unattended, knowing others would help to keep watch,' said Mr Ng. He was in the process of relocating his clinic to Kreta Ayer in Chinatown . Items at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic being kept on May 31, ahead of the closure of Katong Plaza. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI Mr Alan Cheong, Savills Singapore's executive director of research and consultancy, expects that the Katong site will house a mid-tier hotel, given the planned number of rooms. He also pointed out that the Kitchener Road hotel is likely to be an economy-tier type geared towards mass market tourism. He added that Worldwide Hotels' plan to triple the number of rooms is 'logical', as the move will help to boost its earnings. Asked if there is sufficient demand for rooms in the Farrer Park and Marine Parade areas to justify the planned supply, analysts said Singapore's hotel market has performed strongly in the past 12 to 18 months. Mr Edwin Loo, an associate director at real estate consultancy Cistri, said: 'Much of this growth is in the mid-market and upscale segments, reflecting Singapore's success in attracting event-focused visitors as well as visitors from emerging Asia who are willing to spend but remain price-sensitive given Singapore's relatively higher room rates when compared with other regional destinations.' But he noted that the site of Katong Plaza, which is next to Roxy Square, is relatively long and narrow. Mr Edwin Loo, an associate director at real estate consultancy Cistri, felt that the planned redevelopment of Katong Plaza would be boosted if neighbour Roxy Square is also roped in. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI 'An integrated development incorporating both of these sites would have resulted in a better outcome in terms of land optimisation and urban design, especially considering the need to accommodate the extensive pickup, drop-off and coach parking requirements at the ground level and the potential for a larger site to provide greater amenity for the community,' he said. Ng Keng Gene is a correspondent at The Straits Times, reporting on issues relating to land use, urban planning and heritage. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Straits Times
Pornhub owner pressures France over age verification law
France is requiring all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details like a credit card or ID document. PHOTO: AFP – French visitors to Pornhub and Youporn, adult sites operated by parent company Aylo, will from June 4 be greeted with a message denouncing the country's age verification requirements. By showing the message rather than Pornhub's vast library of adult content, Aylo 'is communicating directly with the French people to tell them how dangerous, how potentially privacy-infringing, and how ineffective the French law is', Mr Solomon Friedman, lawyer at Aylo's owner, Ethical Capital Partners, told reporters in a video call on June 3. Paris has gradually introduced requirements for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details like a credit card or ID document. In a bid to preserve privacy, operators must offer a third-party 'double-blind' option that would keep the platforms themselves from seeing users' identifying information. But Aylo says this is an ineffective mechanism that puts people's data at risk from bad actors, hacks or leaks. They say countries should target developers of operating systems like Microsoft's Windows, Apple's iOS or Google's Android rather than porn platforms. 'Aylo is extremely pro the concept of age verification,' executive Alex Kekesi told reporters in a video call. But requiring individual platforms to confirm visitors' ages 'poses a very serious risk… with respect to your privacy rights,' she added. Mr Friedman said: 'Google, Apple and Microsoft all have the capability built into their operating system to verify the age of the user at the operating system or device level.' Their ability 'to supply an age signal to any site or app… can actually provide a solution' for controlling access to adult content without requiring users to share sensitive data with multiple websites, he argued. 'I understand that those three entities are large and they're powerful, but that is not an excuse for France to do what they have done.' Aylo's message to would-be porn viewers will be topped with the image of 'Liberty leading the people' from Eugene Delacroix's renowned bare-breasted painting of the allegorical figure. Culture Minister Aurore Berge wrote on X on June 3 that it was 'so much the better' if Pornhub and other Aylo properties cut off access for French users rather than 'conforming to our legal framework'. 'There will be less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France,' she added. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
