3 billion euro
Danone is said to want 3 billion euro for the deal, which enables it to listen to several interested parties: Fresenius was interested for a while, but the Germans have now stepped out of the race. If Nestlé manages to close the deal, it would still have to wait for approval from the antitrust authorities.
Danone’s ‘medical nutrition” department managed a 2013 turnover of 1.3 billion euro, which represents a 6 % stake in the group’s total turnover. The like-for-like turnover in the past quarter grew 5.2 % to 328 million euro, with 67 % of turnover generated in Europe. The United Kingdom and France are its largest markets.
“For Nestlé, acquiring Danone’s medical-nutrition business would tick the right strategic boxes – whether it would be a good deal or not would come down to price”, according to RBC Europe analyst James Edwardes Jones in a Bloomberg interview. Danone emphasizes the deal is only for its medical nutrition division, Nutricia Medical, a separate branch to its well-known dairy products.
