Danone to return most of Chinese divestment proceeds to shareholders

China Mengniu Dairy

13/05/2021 09:03

PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) - French food group Danone  DANO.PA 
on Thursday said that most of the proceeds from a $2 billion
divestment of its stake in China Mengniu Dairy Company  2319.HK 
will be returned to shareholders through a share buyback
programme, it said on Thursday.
    Danone, under pressure from investment funds over its
shareholder returns, on Wednesday said it would sell its 9.8%
stake in Chine Mengniu Dairy.
    "The transaction resulted in total gross proceeds of 15.4
billion Hong Kong dollars, representing about 1.6 billion euros
($1.94 billion). The settlement of the transaction will take
place on May 17," Danone said.
    Shares in the French company, the brands of which include
Actimel yoghurt and Evian water, fell 0.6% in early trading,
outperforming a 1.8% decline for the CAC 40  .FCHI  index in
Paris.
    Former Danone boss Emmanuel Faber was ousted as chairman and
CEO this year after clashes with some board members over
strategy and calls from activist funds for him to resign over
the group's lacklustre returns compared with some rivals.
    French paper Les Echos this week reported that Antoine de
Saint-Affrique was frontrunner to become Danone's new CEO.
Danone declined to comment on that report.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nP6N2LM01P
($1 = 0.8266 euros)

 (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten
Editing by David Goodman
)
 ((benoit.vanoverstraeten@thomsonreuters.com; +33149495339;))