Swiss packaged food giant Nestle is interested in acquiring Mead Johnson (NYSE: MJN), an Illinois-based company that manufactures and sells infant formulas or other nutritional products, according to a person claiming to have knowledge of the matter.
Credit Suisse is advising on the potential deal, and if talks go smoothly a transaction could be announced before March, the person said.
Mead Johnson has an enterprise value of roughly $14.5 billion, and it is seen as among a handful of companies that stand at the nexus of a major consolidation wave in consumer staples, especially in packaged food. Chatter about a potential takeover has been around since last March, several months before Danone’s proposed $12.5 billion takeover of peer WhiteWave was announced. At the time, Danone and Nestle were both mentioned as potential suitors for Mead Johnson.
A representative for Nestle said it doesn’t comment on rumors as a matter of principle. Mead Johnson didn’t respond to a request to comment.
Source: Street Insider
Free-from is becoming much more mainstream, moving beyond food allergens and intolerances. While it’s still vital to innovate products for lactose intolerance, gluten allergies and so forth, the umbrella term of free-from has taken on many different meanings.
Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI) is targeting infant formula, sports nutrition and medical nutrition with its new patented milk fractionation technology that separates milk proteins from whey, bypassing the need to make cheese. The Denmark-based company says this move enables scientists, nutritionists and health professionals to create “next-generation” dairy products.
Located in Ma’anshan, Anhui province, the facility has the potential to produce an estimated 150 million litres of oat-based products annually at full capacity. The opening comes just a few months after Oatly – which claims to have established a new Chinese character for ‘plant-based milk’ – inaugurated its first Asian factory in Singapore.
