NESTLÉ WILL battle a Danone-Mead Johnson team for Pfizer’s $10 billion infant nutrition business next week, with the Swiss giant tipped as favourite, people familiar with the situation said yesterday.
The Pfizer unit being sold is a high-growth $2.1 billion turnover business with over 70 per cent of sales in emerging markets and a key position in China, and has attracted the attention of the three largest players in the infant milk formula sector. Pfizer’s Askeaton plant is part of this division.
Nestlé, the world’s largest food group, is seen by many bankers as favourite due to its size and deep pockets, but it faces stiff competition from the French-American combination, which was brought together to overcome anti-trust concerns.
Second-round bids are due on Monday in a process started last July when the world’s biggest drugs group put the business up for sale along with its animal health unit, following its $68 billion purchase of Wyeth in 2009.
The Pfizer business ranks as world number five in the infant milk formula market after Nestlé, Mead Johnson, Danone and Abbott Laboratories. – (Reuters)
