Sumac Spice and Sumac Ice Tea
Channel: مناور _ mnawer
Date: 2017-07-19

Spice Maker McCormick Will Buy Reckitt Benckiser’s Food Business For $4.2 Billion
Reckitt cuts the mustard with $4.2 billion food business sale
McCormick Buys Reckitt Benckiser Food Unit for $4.2 Billion
Morning Agenda: McCormick Buys Sauce Brands
FTSE 100 slips as miners sag, but deal lifts Reckitt Benckiser shares

The spice maker McCormick & Company will buy French’s Mustard and other brands in a deal with the British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser. Credit Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket, via Getty Images
The food industry is undergoing a little more repackaging.

The United States spice maker McCormick & Company is making a bet on hot sauce by buying Reckitt Benckiser’s foods business, which includes the Frank’s RedHot brand, French’s Mustard and Cattlemen’s barbecue sauces, for $4.2 billion.

The acquisition may help McCormick’s effort to expand overseas.

The company had tried another British target, Premier Foods, but three informal offers were rejected, according to The Financial Times, which first reported the deal with Reckitt. The FT also reported that Unilever and Hormel had come close to bidding, but walked away.

Reckitt, for its part, can now focus on its infant nutrition unit after buying Mead Johnson, which makes baby formula, for $16.6 billion.

Reckitt, which also makes Durex condoms and Nurofen painkillers, had seen its sales growth damaged by a boycott in South Korea and the weak performance of a new Scholl product.

Discovery and Scripps In Merger Talks Again

The influence of digital viewing is very much being felt in the cable industry.

Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks Interactive are discussing a merger that they hope could help them fend off competition from streaming services, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the talks.

Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE


Behind a Chinese Powerhouse, a Web of Family Financial Ties JULY 18, 2017
ADVERTISEMENT

Continue reading the main story

If they join forces, they could strengthen their negotiations with cable providers like Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable, which have been squeezing network owners after their own round of consolidation.

Discovery, which owns the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, is worth about $15 billion. Scripps, worth about $8.8 billion, also specializes in factual cable programming, with brands including HGTV and Food Network.

The two discussed a tie-up in 2014, but abandoned those talks because the family that controlled Scripps was not ready to sell.

Newsletter Sign UpContinue reading the main story
Sign Up for the DealBook Newsletter
Every weekday, twice a day, get the news driving the markets and the latest on mergers and acquisitions.

You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY OPT OUT OR CONTACT US ANYTIME
Scripps had also had talks about a sale to Viacom, according to Reuters and Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.

A deal has yet to be reached, but if one goes ahead, it could be the biggest media merger since AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner.

A Chinese Powerhouse and a Web of Family Ties

HNA Group seemed to come from nowhere, growing quickly from a small airline into one of China’s most aggressive global deal makers.

And yet it fit a pattern that is beginning to make some people nervous.

The company started as Hainan Airlines but has become a conglomerate with worldwide reach, taking stakes in multinationals like Deutsche Bank and Hilton Hotels.

As with other big Chinese deal markers, however, its ambitions have been fueled by debt and masked by opaque ownership structures, creating uncertainty over its corporate governance, strategic motivations and financial health.

HNA has regularly funneled business to a small group of relatives and associates of its senior executives, according to a review of corporate records by The New York Times. It has also limited disclosure of these dealings to investors in its listed companies or overseas bonds.

This has made it difficult for governments and businesses around the world to understand the forces behind the spending — they could be making decisions based on an incomplete picture of the conglomerate.

The European Central Bank is considering opening an inquiry into whether HNA’s stake in Deutsche Bank meets the criteria for large bank shareholders, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Regulators around the world also closely watch transactions with family and friends to ensure that companies put the interests of investors first.