Danone to buy US soy-milk producer WhiteWave for 10 billion dollars | Progresiv
Danone agreed to buy WhiteWave Foods Co. for about 10 billion dollars, adding the best-selling U.S. soy milk brand Silk and a line of plant-based foods and doubling its size in that market. Investors will receive 56.25 dollars a share in cash, Paris-based Danone said in a statement Thursday. That’s 19 percent higher than WhiteWave’s closing price Wednesday. The yogurt maker will finance the purchase through debt and expects a 300 million dollars boost to operating profit by 2020. The purchase will be “solidly accretive” to results in the first year after closing, Danone said. 
The acquisition give would Danone the global leader in fresh dairy, health-food brands including Horizon milk, Wallaby Organic yogurt and Earthbound Farm packaged salads as consumers increasingly scrutinize labels and shun processed foods. WhiteWave’s Silk is the biggest-selling soy milk brand in the U.S., where some consumers are shifting to plant-based alternatives to dairy.
The purchase values WhiteWave at 12.5 billion dollars including net debt and other liabilities. WhiteWave Foods also owns Belgian soy specialist Alpro. (www.esmmagazine.com)
