French dairy giant Danone has become the latest European target of activist investors, with New York hedge fund Corvex Management taking a €340m stake in the group.
Spain’s Grupo Fuertes has increased its stake in Cherkizovo to 8% after the Russian company’s biggest shareholder, MB Capital Europe, put 1.8 million shares up for sale.
Polish meat business Agro-Rydzyna plans to invest PLN 110 million (€26 million) by 2020 to increase production at its Kłoda meat plant and build another processing facility in Poland
Shareholders at French poultry giant Duc have voted, in an extraordinary general assembly, to increase their share capital and complete the company’s takeover by Plukon Food Group.
Greencore’s planned acquisition of American company Peacock Foods has moved a step closer to completion after gaining antitrust clearance from US authorities.
Malaysian-based DagangHalal, an e-commerce trading platform for halal-verified products, has floated on the London Stock Exchange’s (LSX) market for small but high-growth firms.
Saudi food giant Almarai may buy a US$1.5bn stake in the UAE’s National Food Products Company (NFPC), as the Saudi firm ups its dividend payment and plans to boost its equity.
Unilever share prices surged more than 4% within a few hours of the company announcing that its first quarter sales had risen 12.3% to €12.8bn, exceeding expectations.
Food firms are set to be flavour of the month on regional stock exchanges, as Egypt’s Edita enjoys a bumper debut and Kuwait’s Mezzan Holding gets permission to list.
Kellogg has secured a gateway to introduce its own brands in the promising MEA region by acquiring a controlling stake in Egyptian biscuit maker BiscoMisr, says an analyst.
Premier Foods has delivered “a truly awful 2014 stock performance”, despite making solid restructuring progress, said City analyst Shore Capital, ahead of the firm’s third-quarter trading results, due for release later this week.
Spanish food and wine group Osborne has teamed up with Chinese private investment group Fosun in a bid to grow both its domestic and international markets.
Tate & Lyle’s prospects remain encouraging despite the poor share price, news revealed today (October 4) in its trading update for the six months to September 30, says City analyst Investec.
New Britain Palm Oil’s independent directors have urged shareholders to reject an unsolicited takeover bid from Kulim, which already owns a 50% stake in the company.
Irish dairy giant Glanbia is “confident” of delivering its full year profits target, despite reporting marginal growth for the first nine months of 2012.
A management buyout in tandem with a private equity alliance could be a likely outcome in any change of ownership of Greencore, claims Shore Capital Stockbrokers, following the surprise news yesterday that the manufacturer had received a preliminary takeover...
DSM has signed a joint venture agreement with a Chinese biotechnology company that will give the Dutch ingredients supplier its first enzyme manufacturing plant in China.
US chemical group DuPont has successfully completed its tender offer for Danisco, as 92.2 percent of outstanding shares in the Danish food ingredients firm were tendered by Friday’s deadline, DuPont said on Monday.
Elliott International has increased its Danisco shareholding to 10.01 per cent and has not yet given any indication of tender plans, despite the Friday deadline for 80 per cent of shares to be tendered in order for the deal to go through.
DSM has tendered its 4.95 per cent stake in Danish ingredients firm Danisco, after buyer DuPont raised its offer to DKK700 on Friday following discussions with major shareholders.
DuPont has increased its bid for Danish ingredients firm Danisco by 5.3 per cent to DKK700 per share, and has set a final deadline of May 13 for 80 per cent of shares to be tendered.
DuPont’s €4.9bn acquisition of Danish probiotics and sweeteners specialist Danisco this week is vindication of the increasing economic viability of functional foods, according to analysts.
More deals in the mould of Danisco-DuPont could be feasible, as analysts predict other ingredient firms with small bio-business, such as CSM, will generate acquisition interest.
Danisco is to be snapped up by DuPont for $6.3bn, in a deal Dupont says could create a global leader in industrial biotech – and help drive science-based solutions to the world’s food and fuel challenges.
Regulating food speculation in the City of London is the lynchpin to preventing volatility over food prices, say economists, as parallel measures on both sides of the Atlantic will block traders conducting secretive deals wherever they can.
Stevia supplier PureCircle saw its share price plummet yesterday (Tuesday) after it said in a trading update that its profits for fiscal 2010 would be down on last year.
Recession-hit 2009 wrecked havoc for multinationals in many sectors, but Nestle’s full year results show a company relatively unscathed and still reporting good growth rates.
Kraft has announced that it will begin to end pension increases for current and non-union hourly employees from year end 2019 but the US food group did not provide any clues in regulatory filings as to the future of the 100-year-old Cadbury pension fund.
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated, quipped Mark Twain. Predictions of the demise of Cadbury following the approval of Kraft’s offer are premature and are flawed by knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
Kraft is the overall winner in the battle for UK confectioner Cadbury, and it looks like the US food group has netted a bargain in the final price, claim US analysts Bernstein Research.
Kraft has sold its frozen pizza business to Nestlé to help fund its offer for Cadbury after Nestlé pulled out of the bidding for the British confectioner.
Even if Kraft intends to increase its bid for Cadbury, its latest offer has probably managed to upset both the board and shareholders, says Andrew Wood, senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
