After Bright Dairy put an end to its cooperation with Danone on
October 16, another local diary company, Mengniu, also announced
its breakup with the French food group on December 18 after only a
one-year tie-up.
Previously Mengniu and Danone reached an agreement on December
18, 2006 to set up three joint ventures to cooperate in the yogurt
sector covering Inner Mongolia, Beijing and Ma’anshan of Anhui
Province. Mengniu agreed to hold 51 percent of the stake in the
three joint ventures and Danone held the remainder.
According to the agreement, the two would terminate their
cooperation if preconditions were not created for further
investment before the agreed date of December 18, 2007.
However, the closure of any specific joint ventures would not
affect future cooperation, the two parties said.
Analysts said the termination of cooperation indicates that
Danone is changing its China strategy by possible sole-investments
in its own core businesses, such as dairy products, instead of
setting up joint ventures with Chinese partners.
For more details, please read the full story in Chinese (http://www.cs.com.cn/cqzk/05/200712/t20071220_1264166.htm).
(China.org.cn December 20, 2007)
