Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to buy U.S. infant formula maker Mead Johnson Nutrition for $16.6 billion, its biggest deal ever and opening up a new market area for the British consumer goods company.
Reckitt, the British maker of Lysol cleaners and Durex condoms, said on Friday it will pay $90 a share for the company, a 30 percent premium to the stock’s closing price the day before Reckitt said last week it was in talks to buy Mead Johnson.
Including Mead Johnson’s debt, the deal is worth $17.9 billion.
Reckitt said its goal is for the Mead Johnson business to perform at the upper end of estimated category growth of 3 to 5 percent per year in the medium to long term.
It estimated 200 million pounds in annual cost savings by the end of the third full year, and will add to earnings in the first full year. It should add a double-digit percentage rate to earnings by the third year, Reckitt said.
Reckitt also reported fourth-quarter revenue of 2.76 billion pounds, up 1 percent on a like-for-like basis. For the full year, like-for-like revenue rose 3 percent.
Reported earnings for the full year were 256.5p, up 6 percent.
By Martinne Geller
Source: Reuters
Consumer healthcare firm Haleon has appointed Tate & Lyle executive Dawn Allen as its new chief financial officer, effective 1 November 2024. Allen will succeed Tobias Hestler, who has decided to step down from the role, citing a long-term health condition, the company said.
The group said that the bottling line, which adds 6,500 square metres to the existing 60,700-square-metre site, is the next necessary stage in the company’s international development. The leading brand in Campari Group’s global sales, demand for the Italian bitter apéritif has grown by 500% in the last decade.
The partnership will see Coca-Cola adopt new technology to foster innovation and productivity globally. Through the deal, Coca-Cola has made a $1.1 billion commitment to the Microsoft Cloud and its generative AI capabilities.