HONG KONG (Yosefardi) – Food giant Danone Group has decided to enter China Mengniu Dairy Company Ltd, one of the largest milk producers in China.
Danone will be partner of COFCO, majority shareholder of Mengniu Dairy, in Prominent Achiever with 49% shares. Prominent Achiever, meanwhile, will get the transfer of shares from Fairwill, a wholly owned subsidiary of COFCO. Prominent will hold 8.3% shares in Mengniu Dairy.
COFCO, through its subsidiaries, meanwhile, will continue to be interested in approximately 27.83% shares of Mengniu Dairy.
Last year, Mengniu Dairy booked net profit of RMB1.26 billion, relatively flat compared to 2011 as sales revenues declined from RMB37.4 billion to RMB36.08 billion.