Fonterra’s sale of its Mainland consumer business is set to complete within this month as the deal is now unconditional.
The New Zealand co-operative said in a stock exchange filing that it had received all required regulatory approvals for the separation.
Fonterra first announced the sale of its global consumer and associated businesses – Mainland Group – to French dairy company Lactalis last August. Mainland Group owns brands such as Mainland, Anchor, Perfect Italiano, and Anmum.
The original price of the deal was NZ$3.845 billion, but was raised to $4.22 billion after Fonterra reached an agreement with Bega Group to include the Bega licences in the divestment.
The company’s farmer shareholders already voted in favour of the deal in October.
“With all conditions of the sale satisfied, Fonterra and Lactalis will now proceed to complete the transaction,” Fonterra said in the filing.
The company expects the transaction to close at the end of this month. It expects the record date for the capital return to be April 9 and the payment date to be April 14.
