Authored by Dr. Zhan Hao (zhanhao@anjielaw.com)

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Commerce publicly declared in the recent, that the Ministry has officially accepted the notification on Nestlé’s acquisition of Hsu Fu Chi. If the Ministry turns on the green light for this filing it could be one of the biggest foreign takeovers of a

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Commerce publicly declared in the recent, that the Ministry has officially accepted the notification on Nestlé’s acquisition of Hsu Fu Chi. If the Ministry turns on the green light for this filing it could be one of the biggest foreign takeovers of a Chinese undertaking historically.

Founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé is the world’s leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness company. Nestlé’s product lineup covers from baby food, bottled water, cereals, chocolate & confectionery, coffee, culinary, chilled & frozen food, dairy, drinks to food service, healthcare nutrition, ice cream, petcare, sport nutrition, and further to weight management.

Hsu Fu Chi is China’s largest listed confectionery company, with more than 16,000 sales outlets and 100 sales affiliates. In connection to its revenue, the first quarter of 2011 alone was Rmb1.51bn ($234m). Hsu Fu Chi focuses itself on chocolates, pastries and other sweets markets, and particularly is famous for a breakfast bar called Sachima. It should be recognized that Hsu Fu Chi already developed into a national brand within two decades. Voices from different communities, hence, expressed their worry that this event may ignite nationalist outcries just as it did with Coca-Cola’s negotiations with Huiyuan.Continue Reading Nestlé’s Filing of Acquiring China’ Largest Listed Confectionery Company is Accepted

Introduction

The Ministry of Commerce’s Anti-monopoly Bureau approved Novartis’s acquisition of Alcon on August 13 2010, subject to conditions.(1) The ministry accepted the filing in respect of the acquisition on April 20 2010 and decided on May 17 2010 that a further review period was needed. The ministry reviewed information on:

  • the overlap of the two companies’ products in the Chinese and global markets;
  • their respective market shares;
  • the characteristics, applications, prices and sales methods of their products;
  • the supervisory policies in the relevant market; and
  • the two companies’ relationships with competitors in the market.

Opinions were sought from other companies in the field. After negotiating with the filing parties, consensus was reached on how to reduce the acquisition’s undesirable effects on competition in the relevant markets.Continue Reading Conditional approval for Novartis’s acquisition of Alcon