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NESTLE

Saint-Gobain gets Swiss ‘OK’ for Sika merger

The Swiss competition commission (Comco) has authorized the control of Swiss chemical company by construction materials giant Saint-Gobain, the French company announced in a press release on Tuesday.

Saint-Gobain gets Swiss 'OK' for Sika merger
Photo: AFP

 

The ruling by Comco follows a similar decision by the European Commission in July 2015, following approvals by US and Chinese authorities, Saint-Gobain said.

A spokesman from Comco was not immediately available to confirm the company’s announcement which comes after minority shareholders have bitterly opposed the takeover bid.

Earlier this month, the Swiss Administrative court ruled that Saint-Gobain does not have to make a public takeover offer before purchasing a controlling interest in the company.

Saint-Gobain had agreed to purchase the 16.1 percent stake in Sika held by the Burkhard-Schenker family, which founded the company, for 2.75 billion francs ($2.86 billion).

The founding family holds a powerful class of controlling shares.

The Bill and Melina Gates Foundation Trust is among the minority shareholders against the takeover who have accused Sika’s founding family of disregarding the company’s interests.

“The Foundation Trust will continue to defend their shareholder rights and oppose the ill-advised planned transaction that was structured to serve only the interests of Schenker-Winkler Holding AG (the Burkard family) and Saint-Gobain,” Cascade Investments and the Gates Foundation Trust said in statements at the beginning of the month.

“The proposed transaction makes no strategic sense, is an affront to good corporate governance and is not in the interest of Sika's business, employees, customers or public bearer shareholders,” the two groups said.

“Cascade and the Gates Foundation will continue to protect their investment in Sika and oppose the transaction until reasonableness prevails, even if that requires a multi-year battle.”

Saint-Gobain maintains the merger will be good for both companies with larger profits and synergies worth about €100 million through next year and 2018.

But company said on Tuesday: “In authorizing the transaction without conditions, these decisions confirm the industrial logic of reconciliation between the two groups.”  

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NESTLE

‘Unlimited resources’: Switzerland’s Nestle goes vegan

Swiss food giant Nestle, which has made billions with dairy products, said Monday it will host start-ups that want to develop vegetarian alternatives.

'Unlimited resources': Switzerland's Nestle goes vegan
Photo: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

Nestle could thus find itself at the forefront of a sector that has strong growth potential, an analyst commented.

It plans to open its research and development (R&D) centre in Konolfingen, Switzerland to “start-ups, students and scientists” a statement said.

In addition to testing sustainable dairy products, the group plans to encourage work on plant-based dairy alternatives, it added.

Chief executive Mark Schneider was quoted as saying that “innovation in milk products and plant-based dairy alternatives is core to Nestle's portfolio strategy.”

The group unveiled a vegetable-based milk that had already been developed with the process, and technical director Stefan Palzer told AFP it planned to focus on 100-200 such projects a year.

Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, noted that while Nestle had missed some consumer trends in the past, it has now “taken something of a lead in the plant-based alternative market for food”.

And “given its pretty much unlimited resources, Nestle is going to come out one of the winners in the space,” Cox forecast in an e-mail.

Nestle said that “internal, external and mixed teams” would work at the R&D centre over six-month periods.

Nestle would provide “expertise and key equipment such as small to medium-scale production equipment to facilitate the rapid upscaling of products for a test launch in a retail environment,” it added.

The Swiss food giant has long been known for its dairy products, but faced a boycott in the 1970s for allegedly discouraging mothers in developing countries from breastfeeding even though it was cheaper and more nutritious than powdered formula.

On Monday, the group's statement also underscored that the research initiative was part of its commitment to help fight global warming.

“As a company, we have set ambitious climate goals. This is part of our promise to develop products that are good for you and good for the planet,” it said.

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