WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV) shares were up 0.73% on Friday to $56.64 on reports that the company will be acquired by Danone for $12 billion. WhiteWave Foods has a market cap of $10 billion and shares have been trading in a 52-week range of $31.40 to $56.82.
The company announced that it entered into a definitive merger agreement with Danone acquiring the company at $56.25 per share in an all-cash transaction. This deal also includes the company’s debt and other WhiteWave Foods liabilities. This transaction is expected to close by the end of this year, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
WhiteWave Foods is a a consumer packaged food and beverage company that manufactures, markets, distributes and sells branded plant-based foods and beverages, coffee creamers and beverages, dairy products and organic produce. Meanwhile, Danone is a France-based food company that is the parent company of the Danone Group, which is organized in four divisions: fresh dairy products, waters, early life nutrition, and medical nutrition.
At Danone, we constantly seek to align our vision of the world, our mission and our businesses: we believe we have a special responsibility, as expressed in our Manifesto, to help and support people in adopting healthier and more sustainable eating and drinking practices and constantly evolve our portfolio of brands and products to achieve this objective,” said Danone CEO Emmanuel Faber. “To that extent, we found in WhiteWave the perfect alliance as we both believe in a healthier future and are conscious of our power to lead society forward”
With this merged entity, the companies can create a global leader committed to addressing evolving consumer trends in providing healthy and sustainable food and drinking products. Faber also mentioned that the merger represents a great opportunity to step change the ambition of their plan for an Alimentation revolution and to accelerate their path towards strong sustainable and profitable growth by 2020.
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