Business News

Chinese firm gets go-ahead to buy New Zealand dairy company

Sep 27, 2010, 7:37 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand regulators have approved the acquisition of Synlait Milk Ltd by China's Bright Dairy & Food Co Ltd, Synlait said Monday. The Overseas Investment Office has approved the deal, first announced in July, in which Bright Dairy is to acquire 51 per cent of the New Zealand company for 82 million New Zealand dollars (58 million US dollars). Parent company Synlait Ltd is to retain a 49-per-cent stake. Synlait Milk chief executive John Penno said the approval completed the New Zealand regulatory process for the sale to Shanghai-based Bright Dairy, which is China's largest supplier of processed dairy products. He said the investment would be used to complete a second milk powder plant at Synlait's factory at Dunsandel on South Island, due to start operation in August 2011. The plant, which is predicted to more than double Synlait's current processing capacity of 300 million litres of milk a year, is to produce infant formula and other formulated milk powders for export to Asia. New Zealand's dairy industry is dominated by the Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd, the world's biggest single exporter of dairy products. Fonterra is forecast to process around 14 billion litres of milk in 2010, or 91 per cent of New Zealand's production.

Business News

Chinese firm gets go-ahead to buy New Zealand dairy company

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