Nestlé to conclude acquisitions this month
Valor Econômico 05/20/2009
Yesterday the president of Nestlé in Brazil, Ivan Zurita, affirmed the company should conclude the acquisition of two companies until the end of this month. In September, Zurita had already announced the purchase of two companies, which should take place in October. However, it was only in December that the company finally announced the acquisition of the springs of Santa Bárbara Mineral Waters, in the city of Águas de Santa Bárbara, in the interior of São Paulo. The second acquisition foreseen by the executive at the time, however, has not been disclosed by the company so far.
Questioned by Valor to provide more details on the transactions, Nestlé affirmed one of the acquisitions to be announced within the next days is same one anticipated by the executive in the end of 2008. However, Nestlé did not provide any further information on the other operation that, if confirmed, will be the third one carried out by the company since the beginning of last year.Zurita also affirmed that Nestlé, which operates in 28 different segments in the country, intends to invest nearly R$ 350 million (US$ 167 million) in Brazil this year. The funds will be mainly directed to the increase of the capacity and development of technologies, and the amount intended for the foreseen acquisitions has not been released yet. "With those investments, we have an aggressive plan for Nestlé: to double the earnings up to 2012 ", he said. According to him, the size of the Brazilian market and business chances the country offers, mainly as it becomes positively different from the other economies regarding fighting the crisis, will provide grounds for the advance intended by the company. The multinational ended 2008 with net sales of R$ 13.4 billion (US$ 7.3 billion) in Brazil.