Danone announced that it had agreed the sale to Lactalis for €770m in a statement this Monday. The two French companies are among the largest dairy processors in the world.

Stonyfield is an exclusively organic manufacturer of milk, cream and yoghurt products in the US with €325m in sales last year.

The sale is part of an agreement between Danone and US competition authorities following its acquisition last year of WhiteWave, another organic and dairy-free foods manufacturer.

Danone said the sale price for Stonyfield amounted to 20 years of its earnings (EBITDA). By comparison, WhiteWave cost Danone €11bn or 25 times its earnings. The two transactions show the high price traditional dairy processors are currently prepared to pay for manufacturers established in the health foods market, especially in the US.

In Europe, competition authorities conditioned Danone’s acquisition of WhiteWave to the sale of a baby foods company in Belgium.

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