Wyeth?baby-formula products are arrayed on the shelves?at a supermarket. [CFP]

Nestle and Danone, Europe's two largest food companies, joined the first-round bids for Wyeth, a baby-formula unit of the world's largest drug maker Pfizer.

Nestle had up to US$8.3 billion in cash as of June, more than double Danone's US$3 billion. Pfizer's nutrition business generated approximately US$2 billion in sales last year.

It is likely that in the event of a successful bid for Wyeth, Nestle or Danone would relinquish some of their regional markets in order to pass antitrust scrutiny from the regulator, analysts said.

After adding Wyeth's market share, Nestle would secure more than 14 percent of the market in China while Danone would control over 16 percent.

According to recent Bloomberg reports, three of the market's other major players, Heinz, Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson, have also shown an interest in purchasing the division.

China's business press carried the story above on Monday.