Milan | Reuters — France’s Lactalis failed to reach the 90 per cent stake in Parmalat it required to proceed to delist the Italian food company in the last day of a buyout offer, a filing by the Milan bourse showed Tuesday.
Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy firm, bought 15.11 per cent of the shares on offer or just under 1.85 per cent of Parmalat, the filing showed. This would give them a total of 89.6 per cent in Parmalat when added to their previous holding in the Italian group.
Parmalat was relaunched in 2005 after going bankrupt following a financial scandal and Lactalis won control of it in 2011.
The French company said in December it sought to buy the 12.26 per cent of Parmalat it did not already own, with the aim of delisting the group.
Earlier this month Lactalis had raised the price of the shares on offer to three euros per share after complaints from some investors that its previous bid undervalued the Italian group.
— Reporting for Reuters by Elisa Anzolin, writing by Giulia Segreti.
