French food multinational Danone had agreed to sell its US organic yoghurt business Stonyfield to get clearance for a proposed USD 10.4 billion acquisition of WhiteWave Foods.
Danone’s sale of Stonyfield stems from an agreement reached with the US Department of Justice’s anti-trust department, Danone said in a statement.
US trade authorities were concerned that the merger would otherwise have led to potentially undesirable consolidation of the dairy industry, particularly in the organic sector. WhiteWave owns Horizon, the largest organic milk brand in the US. Organic Valley, the second-biggest organic milk brand, is the largest supplier to Stonyfield. Stonyfield also licenses its brand name to Organic Valley for its milk.
Danone took a 40% stake in the Stonyfield (which has sales of USD 370 million) in 2002. The French dairy upped its stake to 80% in 2004 and bought out the remainder in 2014.