In June 2011, Crédit Agricole CIB acted as co-lead arranger and bookrunner for a EUR 7.5 billion syndicated loan on behalf of Lactalis group. The other co-lead banks are Société Générale, Natixis and HSBC.

This credit facility was used to finance the takeover bid launched by Lactalis on May 23, 2011, for Italy’s Parmalat, as well as to refinance existing syndicated loans.

After acquiring a 29% interest in Parmalat, Lactalis decided in April to launch a takeover bid for the remaining 71%.
Crédit Agricole CIB was once again mandated by the French company as lead arranger and bookrunner for this EUR 7.5 billion credit facility.

On July 8, 2011, the new world leader in dairy products officially announced the end to its successful takeover bid which enabled it to acquire 83.3% of the Italian company’s capital.

Thanks to the transaction’s success, Lactalis has become the world leader in dairy products with operations on all five continents and strong positions in all product categories.
With sales of nearly EUR 15 billion and 52,000 employees, Lactalis group is now present in 55 countries. In addition to being the global market leader for dairy products, it also ranks among the top 15 agribusiness companies worldwide.

"This is a significant and transformative development for our company resulting in an increase of almost 50% in our business. Lactalis becomes even more international and more diversified. Parmalat and Lactalis will be able to benefit mutually from their international coverage, product portfolios and strong brands in order to continue their development," said Emmanuel Besnier, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lactalis group.

"Crédit Agricole CIB has been proud to assist Lactalis in its development. Following three mandates obtained over the past few months, this new mandate for a major transaction confirms the quality of the Bank’s relationship with Lactalis," stated Stéphane Publie, Senior Banker.





"This new success bears witness to the expertise of our syndication teams and to their ability to get involved in large-scale transactions," added Jean-François Balaÿ, Head of Global Loan Syndication Group.