The Russian food and drink producer Wimm-Bill-Dann has confirmed that it is in talks to sell all or part of its business to the French company Danone, ending recent speculation on its future.
“Shareholders are engaged in preliminary discussions in relation to a possible transaction, which may or may not result in the acquisition of all or a majority of the shares of the company by Groupe Danone,” Wimm-Bill-Dann said in a statement.
Danone already has a relationship with the Russian company. It underpinned the company’s initial public offering by taking a 4% stake at the placement. It has since increased its direct stake to 6.25%, while some minority shareholders suggest it controls an additional 6% indirectly.
Any deal of this scale would be one of the biggest foreign investments in Russian business ever. The company is valued at just over US$900m.
