Bright Food hopes to cream off Aussie dairy
- Source: Global Times
- [10:28 June 25 2010]
- Comments
Bright Food yogurt on sale in a supermarket in Shanghai. The dairy producer boasts a large market share in east China. Photo: IC
By Tang Zhao
A ruling is expected Friday by Australian authorities that will pave the way for Shanghai-based Bright Food Group to go ahead with its plans to acquire the sugar business of Australian firm CSR, an unidentified senior manager at Bright Food said on Wednesday.
The manager at Bright Food, a leading food and diary manufacturer in China, said that it is very likely that Bright Food will purchase CSR's sugar and renewable energy business entity Sucrogen for A$1.75 billion ($1.53 billion), Chinese financial news website Caing.com reported on Wednesday.
CSR and Bright Food began talks at the beginning of the year over an acquisition by the latter of CSR's sugar business.
However, in February, Australia's Federal Court ruled that CSR could not spin off its sugar business, due to concerns that doing so would mean CSR would not be able to meet its compensation obligations to victims of the Wittenoom disaster, which resulted in a large number of people being exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos from the company's mining operations in Western Australia between 1948 and 1966.
CSR subsequently appealed against the court decision preventing it from spinning off its sugar business.
Calls by the Global Times to the publicity department of Bright Food went unanswered Thursday.
Vice president of Bright Food, Ge Jujie, has been visiting Australia with Vice President Xi Jinping and a Chinese trade delegation, since June 19.
CSR is Australia's largest sugar producer and second-largest building materials manufacturer.
Bright Food accounts for 10 percent of China's sugar market, and controls the four listed companies of Bright Dairy & Food, Shanghai Jinfeng Wine, Shanghai Maling Aquarius and Shanghai Haibo.
