Meiji, Lactalis, Saputo, Warburg may bid in Fonterra's $2.4 billion sale, sources say
By Kane Wu, Scott Murdoch and Yantoultra Ngui
HONG KONG/SYDNEY (Reuters) -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% of Fonterra's operating earnings in the first half of fiscal 2024, it said in May 2024.
Shares of Fonterra have climbed 8% 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% 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
USA Today
13 minutes ago
- USA Today
Donald and Melania Trump to attend Kennedy Center's opening night of Les Misérables
Donald and Melania Trump to attend Kennedy Center's opening night of Les Misérables Some cast members in the Les Misérables production at the Kennedy Center plan to sit out of the show that night. Show Caption Hide Caption Trump pledges Kennedy Center overhaul, says it's in disrepair After JD Vance was booed at a concert, Trump toured the Kennedy Center, saying it is in 'disrepair' and promising to overhaul the cultural center. WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are set to attend the opening-night showing of the musical Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center next week, making a rare public appearance in Washington's nightlife by visiting the cultural institution Trump controversially took over. The White House confirmed the first couple's attendance to USA TODAY. But they won't be seeing all of the primary cast members, some of whom plan to sit out of the show that night, CNN and the Washington Post reported. Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance will also attend the same showing of Les Misérables, Fox News reported. The musical debuts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on June 11 and runs through July 13. "I love the songs, I love the play," Trump told Fox News on June 3 after The Atlantic first reported on the plans to attend Les Misérables. "I think it's great ‒ we may extend it." More: JD Vance booed by crowd at Kennedy Center concert after Trump takeover of arts venue Les Misérables, set in early 19th-century France, tells the story of French peasant Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who struggles to find redemption after 19 years in prison. Trump is known to have "Do you hear the people sing? ‒ one of the musical's most famous songs about everyday people rising up against injustices ‒ playing as he enters for campaign rallies. For JD Vance, his attendance at the Kennedy Center comes after he was loudly booed and jeered while attending a National Symphony Orchestra performance at the center in March. Just weeks into his second White House term, Trump ousted the Kennedy Center's leadership in February and named himself board chairman after complaining about "woke" programming and "drag shows" at the center. He named top ally Ric Grenell, his envoy for special missions, as the Kennedy Center's new president. But Trump's takeover has sparked a significant backlash. More: 'I never liked 'Hamilton' very much,' President Trump says in visit to Kennedy Center Acts such as actress Issa Rae and the Broadway hit "Hamilton" canceled previously scheduled Kennedy Center performances in response to Trump's takeover. And the center has experienced a nosedive in yearly subscriptions. The Washington Post reported sales of subscriptions for the next season of programming at the Kenny Center have plummeted by 36%, down about $1.6 million in revenue from subscription sales to theater, dance, classical and other seasons of performance from the same point in 2014. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Sanofi to acquire Blueprint for up to $9.5B
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Looking to further amp up its immunology business, Sanofi has agreed to acquire Blueprint Medicines in a deal that could be worth as much as $9.5 billion. Blueprint's research revolves around an enzyme made by a gene called KIT. This 'tyrosine kinase' enzyme helps control cell development, division and survival, so if it mutates, it can spur the type of uncontrolled cell growth seen in cancer and some rare diseases. Blueprint already has one medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Ayvakit, and is working on a handful of others, two of which are in human testing. The FDA first approved Ayvakit in early 2020 for a rare kind of hard-to-treat gastrointestinal tumor, and specifically for the small subset of adults who have these tumors and certain mutations. Since then, the agency cleared the medicine as a treatment for both the less and more aggressive forms of 'systemic mastocytosis,' an uncommon disorder where a kind of white blood cell known as a mast cell builds up in the bone marrow, digestive tract, skin and other organs. The accumulation can lead to severe inflammation and organ damage. Last year, Blueprint posted $479 million in net product revenue from Ayvakit. The company used to have another marketed cancer drug, Gavreto, which it was co-developing and commercializing with Roche. But Roche ultimately backed away from that alliance, leading Blueprint to sell away rights to Rigel Pharmaceuticals in early 2024. In a statement announcing the deal, Sanofi highlighted the recent trajectory in Ayvakit sales. They were up more than 60%, for example, between the first quarter of 2024 and the same three-month period this year. Blueprint recorded a $67 million net loss in 2024, compared to a more than half-a-billion-dollar net loss in each of the previous two years. The proposed acquisition 'represents a strategic step forward in our rare and immunology portfolios,' Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in the Monday statement. 'It enhances our pipeline and accelerates our transformation into the world's leading immunology company.' Hudson added that his company maintains a 'sizeable capacity for further acquisitions.' After being an active dealmaker over the past few years, the French pharmaceutical giant still had close to 8 billion euros in cash and cash equivalents at the end of March. Sanofi bought the diabetes drug developer Provention Bio for almost $3 billion in 2023 and the rare disease-focused Inhibrix for $2.2 billion in 2024. And just last month, it agreed to spend $470 million on Vigil Neuroscience, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company touting an Alzheimer's disease drug that just finished an early-stage human study. Similar to its Vigil proposal, Sanofi is offering Blueprint investors a so-called contingent value right that could be worth up to $6 per Blueprint share, provided one of the biotech's experimental drugs, 'BLU-808,' hits certain development and regulatory goals. BLU-808 is in mid-stage testing as a possible treatment for chronic hives and an allergy-related condition that causes runny eyes and a congested nose. Blueprint also believes the drug could be useful in treating allergic asthma and 'mast cell activation syndrome.' Another Blueprint drug, elenestinib, is further along, having advanced to a late-stage study for the slower-moving form of systemic mastocytosis. Sanofi's upfront payment of $9.1 billion values Blueprint shares at $129 apiece, reflecting a premium of about 27% from the biotech's closing stock price on Friday. The transaction is expected to close sometime between July and the end of September, according to Sanofi. Andrew Berens, an analyst at the investment firm Leerink Partners, wrote in a note to clients how his team expected Blueprint to land on the 'strategic radar of large pharma' given Ayvakit is on the path to $1 billion or more in annual sales and the company recently raised its financial guidance for this year. However, the deal came sooner than anticipated, ahead of a key data readout for a rival drug from Cogent Biosciences. Cogent's bezuclastinib is also being evaluated as a treatment for systemic mastocytosis, with results set to arrive in the next couple months. Regardless of how strong or weak those results will be, Berens believes they'd serve as a tailwind for Blueprint 'by removing a key overhang and allowing a strategic acquirer to structure a deal based on assumptions about ... market dynamics.' As such, Cogent's data could have propped up Blueprint's share price, 'which may have been an impetus for Sanofi to do the deal now,' Berens posited. Even so, the analyst still sees Sanofi's bid as a positive for Blueprint and this field of research. Cogent shares were down by about 2% late Monday morning. Recommended Reading Blueprint wins key FDA approval for rare disease drug Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
France Charges 25 People, Including 6 Minors, in Crypto Kidnapping Cases
French authorities have charged 25 people, including six minors, for their roles in a spate of crypto kidnappings in Paris, with the majority of the suspects connected to the recent failed kidnapping attempt of a crypto exchange CEO's family, Paris's public prosecutor's office said, Le Monde reported Saturday. The investigation is focused on the kidnapping attempt of the daughter and grandson of the CEO of crypto exchange Paymium, Pierre Noizat, that occurred on May 13, the report said. The probe also looked at other unsuccessful kidnapping attempts, including an earlier attempt on Noizat's family members, plus an attempted abduction near the western city of Nantes last Monday that authorities thwarted. The arrests follow a spate of high-profile crypto kidnappings that have plagued France this year. In May the father of a French crypto millionaire was kidnapped, the BBC reported. At the start of the year David Ballard, a co-founder of crypto-wallet developer Ledger was kidnapped alongside his wife. Both of the men had a finger severed, with videos of the appendage used to extract a ransom. Following the recent kidnappings France's Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau hosted a meeting with crypto stakeholders in May to discuss measures to keep them secure. The suspects involved in the May 13 case were between the ages of 16 and 23 years; six of them were minors, the Le Monde report said. They were mostly born in France while three individuals were from Senegal, Angola and Russia, the report cited prosecutors as saying. This case is characterized by "very young profiles, lured by money and then caught up in a situation that is beyond them," observed lawyer Ambroise Vienet-Legué, who is defending an 18-year-old suspect in the Nantes part of the case, the report said. A source familiar with the investigation told CoinDesk that the suspects are believed to be locally-hired muscle, who are paid by a criminal operation in Southeast Asia to carry out the kidnappings for as little as $10,000. Eighteen people are in pre-trial detention, three have requested a deferred hearing while four are under judicial supervision, the public prosecutor said. Though France has been the epicenter of crypto kidnappings, similar crimes are on the rise across the globe, including recent several cases in the U.S. CoinDesk reached out to Paris's prosecution office for a comment.
