Meiji, Lactalis, Saputo, Warburg may bid in Fonterra's $2.4 billion sale, sources say

By Kane Wu, Scott Murdoch and Yantoultra Ngui

HONG KONG/SYDNEY (Reuters) -Companies including Japan's Meiji, French group Lactalis and Canada's Saputo are considering bidding for the units dairy giant Fonterra is seeking to divest, two sources with knowledge of the matter said this week.

The companies would be bidding for Fonterra's global consumer businesses consisting of the operations and marketing of brands such as Mainland and Anchor butter, Kapiti ice cream and cheese and the Anlene powdered milk supplement. The sale also includes the Fonterra Oceania and Fonterra Sri Lanka units with operations from milk collection to processing to supplying products to consumers and food-service companies.

A deal for the businesses Fonterra is divesting could be valued at around NZ$4 billion ($2.37 billion), the two sources said.

U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus is also interested in buying the businesses, said one of the two sources and a third source with knowledge of Warburg's interest.

New Zealand-based Fonterra announced in November a dual track plan to either sell the units or to list them through an initial public offering so it could focus on its core activity of processing milk at home.

The company hopes to wrap up a sale by the middle of this year but is still looking at the IPO process, according to the first two sources.

The three sources declined to be named as the matter was private.

Fonterra said on Wednesday the process is confidential and cannot comment. Lactalis and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. Meiji said it is unable to make an official comment.

Saputo did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Fonterra is concurrently pressing ahead with IPO. In February, it named key management team members for the possible company, which it will name Mainland Group if the IPO route is chosen.

Before making a final decision on a sale or IPO, the company plans to seek a vote from its farmer shareholders for their preferred divestment option.

The operations being considered for a possible divestment accounted for about 19% of Fonterra's operating earnings in the first half of fiscal 2024, it said in May 2024.

Shares of Fonterra have climbed 8% so far this year, giving it a market value of around $4.3 billion, LSEG data showed. The company's shares were down 0.2% on Thursday at NZ$4.53.

($1 = 1.6866 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong, Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Additional reporting by Anton Bridge in Tokyo; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)