Hershey leaves Amul with a bitter taste

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Chocolate maker Hershey has left a sour taste in Amul’s mouth. It seems that the US choco maker was wooing India’s premier milk co-operative for a possible distribution alliance even as it was seeking government permission to strike a joint venture with Godrej Beverages and Foods.

What has outraged a section in Amul is the fact that when its senior officials met the Hershey team as late as February 28 (the day ET reported details of Hershey’s application dated February 19 to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board seeking permission for the JV with Godrej) and asked if the report was true, Hershey officials rubbished it saying “don’t trust media reports”.

This prompted Amul to consider Hershey’s proposal for a possible distribution alliance so seriously that a team of senior executives had even planned a visit to Hershey’s manufacturing facility in the US sometime in May.

Read more at Economic Times

Dow, Reliance JV this week

Dow Chemicals, the US-based petrochem giant, may announce its intent of floating a joint venture with Reliance Industries this week.

Sources close to the development said the foreign company would announce this week, if not Sunday, that it would spin off its underperforming commodity businesses into a separate entity in which Reliance would pick up a majority stake. However, the valuation of the joint venture might be not immediately announced, they said.

It means the announcement may not give a sense of Reliance’s investment for picking up a majority stake in the venture. Dow, perhaps, would announce the appointment of a valuer to ascertain the worth of the venture, they added.

Both the companies are keeping mum on the issue. A Reliance spokesperson declined to comment while an e-mail sent to Dow remained unanswered. Read more at Business Standard

RIL inches closer to mega JV with Dow

There’s yet another big global deal brewing and this might turn out to be a real blockbuster. It’s actually a global petrochem powerhouse in the making. Reliance Industries, which has been talking to the $49-billion Dow Chemicals-the world’s second-largest chemicals company-has inched closer to signing an MoU with the US company.

According to sources, talks are at an advanced stage and the two sides are expected to make a formal announcement by this weekend. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, along with a top-level team, including Nikhil Meswani, Kamal P Nanavaty, Alok Agarwal and Haresh Shah, is scheduled to meet Dow CEO Andrew N Liveris and the rest of the senior team for the final round of negotiations.

The Reliance official spokesperson, however, denied that a deal like this was in the offing. Even an email to Reliance failed to elicit any response. Dow Chemical’s media relations leader Andrew Wood expressed his inability to answer ET’s queries, stating that it is Dow’s policy not to comment on rumours about the company or its activities.

Read more at Economic Times