Nestle : L'Oreal ready to buy shareholder Nestle's stake in the firm - CEO
February 09, 2018 at 04:47 am
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PARIS (Reuters) - L'Oreal (>> L'Oréal) stands ready to buy Nestle's (>> Nestlé) 23 percent stake in the firm should its Swiss shareholder choose to sell, and it could finance a purchase through cash, by selling its Sanofi (>> Sanofi) stake or by borrowing, L'Oreal's CEO said.
PARIS (Reuters) - L'Oreal (>> L'Oréal) stands ready to buy Nestle's (>> Nestlé) 23 percent stake in the firm should its Swiss shareholder choose to sell, and it could finance a purchase through cash, by selling its Sanofi (>> Sanofi) stake or by borrowing, L'Oreal's CEO said.
"If Nestle one day wants to sell, we are ready," L'Oreal's Chairman and Chief Executive Jean-Paul Agon told a news conference on Friday, after the cosmetics company released its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.
"we have 1.8 billion euros (1.58 billion pounds) in cash, we have the Sanofi stake. We are also a very serious and loyal and active shareholder in Sanofi, but in case we will be ready and I'm sure if it was not enough, we have many love letters from banks that have said that they would love to lend us some money."
Agon added that any decision to sell was in Nestle's hands.
(Reporting by Sarah WhiteEditing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
Nestlé S.A. is the world's leading agri-food group. Net sales break down by category of products as follows:
- powdered and liquid beverages (26.7%): soluble coffees (Nescafé and Starbucks brands), coffee in capsules (Nespresso), chocolate drinks (Nesquik, Milo, etc.), tea drinks (Nestea), etc.;
- pet food (20.3%): brands such as Purina, Friskies, Felix, etc.;
- pharmaceutical, nutrition and well-being products (16.4%): nutritional supplements (Resource, Boost, Nutren, Optifast, Peptamen brands, etc.), infant and maternal nutrition products (NAN, illuma, Cerelac, Nido, Gerber), ketogenic beverages (BrainXpert), (Nesquick, Fitness, Cheerios, Lion, etc.), etc.;
- ready meals and seasoning products (12.5%): frozen and chilled dishes (Lean Cuisine, Hot Pockets and Stouffer's brands), soups (Maggi), etc.;
- dairy products and ice cream (11.8%): powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk, yoghurt and cream desserts, ice cream (Nido, Nesvita, Carnation, La Laitière, Coffee Mate, Nestlé Ice Cream, Dreyers, Häagen-Dazs, Extrême brands, etc.);
- chocolates, sweets and biscuits (8.7%): Kit Kat, Smarties, Cailler, Terrafertil, etc. brands;
- bottled waters (3.6%): Nestlé Pure Life, Vittel, Perrier, S. Pellegrino, etc. brands.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Switzerland (1.2%), France (3.8%), the United Kingdom (3.8%), Germany (2.4%), Europe (12.8%), the United States and Canada (35%), China (5.9%), Asia and Oceania (21.4%) and Latin America (13.7%).