South African pharmaceutical group Aspen announced this Thursday that it is selling its infant formula division to French-based Lactalis, the largest collector of milk in Europe, subject to approval by competition authorities.

Lactalis will pay €739.8m in cash for Aspen's nutritionals business, which ships the Aula and Infacare brands in South Africa and to other emerging countries.

Joint ventures

The assets sold include plants in Africa and Latin America, and stakes in joint ventures in the Asia-Pacific region.

Aspen said it would use €62m from the transaction windfall to buy out joint venture partners in New Zealand and China.

According to Aspen's accounts, its nutritional division generated €180m in revenue and €30m in profit in the financial year ended 30 June 2018.

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