NESN.SW - Nestle S.A.
| Previous close | 103.08 |
| Open | 102.82 |
| Bid | 102.50 x 0 |
| Ask | 103.10 x 0 |
| Day's range | 102.14 - 103.32 |
| 52-week range | 77.74 - 113.20 |
| Volume | 5108849 |
| Avg. volume | 5,600,026 |
| Market cap | 297B |
| Beta (5Y Monthly) | 0.35 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 33.04 |
| EPS (TTM) | 3.12 |
| Earnings date | 13 Feb 2020 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 2.45 (2.38%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-04-15 |
| 1y target est | 87.75 |
- Bloomberg
Nestle Sells U.S. Ice Cream Brands
Dec.12 -- Nestle SA is selling its U.S. ice cream business to a joint venture with private equity firm PAI Partners. It’s valued at $4 billion. The deal aims to create a stronger challenger to Unilever. Bloomberg Intelligence’s Duncan Fox discusses the deal on “Bloomberg Markets: European Open.”
- Bloomberg
Nestle Passes on Dessert as Its CEO Skips Straight to Coffee
(Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider keeps cutting the sugar and fat. The question is what he’ll add to spur growth at the world’s biggest food company.In the CEO’s second-biggest disposal, the Swiss company sold its U.S. ice cream business to a joint venture with private equity firm PAI Partners for $4 billion.That adds the Haagen-Dazs and Drumstick brands to Baby Ruth and Butterfinger chocolate bars on Schneider’s list of disposals, with luncheon meat maker Herta and two ailing Chinese candy and food brands still on the block. Nestle further bolstered its cash pile with a $10 billion sale of its skin health business earlier this year.Schneider has said he’s focusing on growth categories like coffee, pet food, baby nutrition, water and consumer health. At Nestle’s most recent financial update, he signaled an appetite for deals. Since taking over almost three years ago, however, he’s done more selling than buying.Therein lies Nestle’s conundrum: The maker of Nescafe and Stouffer’s frozen food already enjoys a dominant position in many markets, meaning large purchases would be complicated by competition concerns. Smaller deals won’t move the needle much.Size Constraints“Nestle is a bit more constrained when it comes to big acquisitions, because in the areas they want to grow they’re already a very strong player,” said Patrik Schwendimann, an analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank.Schneider’s largest acquisition so far was last year’s $7.2 billion splurge on the right to market Starbucks products, including coffee capsules for the Nespresso system. Nestle has also paid $2.3 billion for dietary supplements maker Atrium Innovations.But Nestle is sitting on loads of cash, and its current $20 billion share buyback program could be scaled down in the case of sizeable acquisitions. The company also has a 23% stake in L’Oreal SA that could be sold to finance purchases. Some investors have taken the Atrium deal as a sign Schneider is planning to expand in consumer health.“I expect a bigger acquisition -- the question mark is on timing,” said Alain Oberhuber, an analyst at MainFirst Bank. He anticipates further divestments next year before Schneider moves to make a large acquisition in medical nutrition or health sciences around 2021.A Nestle representative declined to comment.The ice cream deal bolsters a joint venture called Froneri, which was created in 2016 when the Swiss company merged European frozen dessert brands with PAI-owned R&R. It creates a stronger challenger to Unilever, the global leader in ice cream with the Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum brands.For Nestle, however, the sale marks another retrenchment in the U.S. Possible targets include Danone’s medical-nutrition business or Fresenius Kabi’s nutrition unit, which could be worth $2 billion to $6 billion, Oberhuber estimated. One purchase that might require Nestle to sell its L’Oreal stake would be a move for Abbott Laboratories’ infant- and medical-nutrition businesses, which could fetch some $30 billion, he estimated.Chief Financial Officer Francois-Xavier Roger recently signaled that Nestle could also make acquisitions outside the product segments Schneider has targeted. At a Sanford C. Bernstein conference in September, he pointed to the strong performance of KitKat chocolate and the Maggi soup and seasonings business in emerging markets after being asked whether dealmaking activity should be expected to focus on the core categories.Sauces, FlavoringsMaggi is growing more than 10% in emerging markets. Strong growth in Asia for oyster and soy sauces could make flavorings one area to expand in outside core categories, according to Nico von Stackelberg, an analyst at Liberum.If no big targets turn up, the company is expected to continue buying in niche areas like vegan food that it’s bolstered over the past few years.“Lacking the opportunity of big acquisitions, smaller ones could be found in local coffee brands, for example in emerging markets, or the plant-based space,” Zuercher Kantonalbank’s Schwendimann said.To contact the reporter on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Anne PollakFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Nestle Sells Haagen-Dazs Unit to PAI Venture for $4 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA is selling its U.S. ice cream business that includes brands like Haagen-Dazs and Drumstick to a joint venture with private equity firm PAI Partners for $4 billion.The venture, Froneri, was created in 2016 when the Swiss company merged its European ice cream business with PAI-owned R&R. Now it’s expanding to create a stronger challenger to Unilever, the global leader in ice cream with the Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum brands.The move comes as Nestle Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider divests slower-growing businesses like its U.S. confectionery operations while focusing on pet food, water and coffee for growth. The shares were little changed early Thursday in Zurich trading.“Nestle has been up against Unilever for years,” said Duncan Fox, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Having complete focus on ice cream makes it more likely for the merged brands to compete against Unilever’s global scale.”Competition in the U.S. ice-cream market has intensified, as upstarts like Halo Top that offer healthier options eat away at bigger players’ market share. Unilever has responded with postmodern flavors like Turmeric Chai & Cinnamon or Matcha & Fudge.The U.S. ice cream business being divested had sales of $1.8 billion in 2018, while Froneri had revenue of 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.9 billion), Nestle said. The deal will give Froneri a 10% global market share, compared with Unilever’s 18%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, citing Euromonitor data.Appetite for Deals“We see the move as a further step in a managed exit, with a potential eventual endgame of an outright sale of the JV assets to PAI,” Martin Deboo, an analyst at Jefferies, wrote in a note.Schneider signaled an appetite for deals at Nestle’s most recent financial update in October, after the $10 billion sale of a dermatology unit earlier this year. The company has said it aims to complete a review of its ailing European processed-meat brand Herta by the end of the year, and is said to be considering a sale of its two ailing Chinese units Hsu Fu Chi and Yinlu.The ice cream deal also follows Nestle’s decision to cut some 4,000 jobs linked to the direct delivery system of frozen pizza and ice cream to stores, and instead transition to a warehouse model to lower costs.Nestle is “convinced that Froneri’s successful business model can be extended to the U.S. market,” Schneider said in a statement, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report.The venture is gaining market share, Nestle said. The Swiss company sells Haagen-Dazs in the U.S. while General Mills Inc. makes it for Europe and other markets.Unilever’s CommitmentEven as Nestle backs away from ice cream, Unilever says it’s sticking to it. The company said in October that growth over the summer was held back by sluggish performance for the category in Europe, after hot weather a year earlier boosted sales.“Ice cream is absolutely something we are super committed to,” Hanneke Faber, the Anglo-Dutch company’s president of foods and refreshment, said this month in opening a food innovation center in the Netherlands.(Updates with Unilever comments in last two paragraphs)\--With assistance from Vinicy Chan and Aaron Kirchfeld.To contact the reporters on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.net;Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.net;Dinesh Nair in London at dnair5@bloomberg.net;Davide Scigliuzzo in New York at dscigliuzzo2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, John LauermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Nestle sells U.S. ice cream brands to joint venture Froneri in $4 billion deal
Nestle SA has agreed to sell its U.S. ice cream business to Froneri in a deal valued at $4 billion, moving control of brands including Häagen-Dazs to a joint venture the Swiss group set up in 2016. Froneri was created after Nestle merged its European ice cream business in 20 countries with R&R, a unit of French private equity firm PAI Partners. With operations in regions including Latin America and Asia, it is one of the largest ice cream companies in the world with a turnover of around 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.91 billion) as of last year.
- Reuters
Nestle invests $45 million a year in cocoa sustainability
Nestlé is spending 45 million Swiss francs (£35.17 million) a year on efforts to source cocoa sustainably, the food company said, also citing progress in reducing child labour in its West African supply chain. The company, which has spent about 220 million francs over the past ten years on efforts to tackle child labour and deforestation in cocoa, said it aimed to have 100% sustainable cocoa sourcing in its confectionary products by 2025. Nestle's child labour monitoring and remediation system (CLMRS), a part of its sustainably sourcing scheme, currently covers just 57% of the cocoa it sources in West Africa, where child labour is prevalent.
- Reuters
Nestle to use Nutri-Score nutrition-labelling in Europe
Nestle will give its food products ratings according to their nutritional value, the packaged food company said, so customers can better decide the healthiness of their shopping. The maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nesquik milkshake powder will introduce a labelling system using colours in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland, starting in the first half of 2020. Nestle said more than more than 5,000 products in the five countries will feature Nutri-Score, a colour-coded system which rates food from Green and the letter A, for healthier products, to red and the letter E, for products whose ingredients are less healthy.
- Reuters
Nestle to use Nutri-Score nutrition-labeling in Europe
Nestle will give its food products ratings according to their nutritional value, the packaged food company said, so customers can better decide the healthiness of their shopping. The maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nesquik milkshake powder will introduce a labeling system using colors in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland, starting in the first half of 2020. Nestle said more than more than 5,000 products in the five countries will feature Nutri-Score, a color-coded system which rates food from Green and the letter A, for healthier products, to red and the letter E, for products whose ingredients are less healthy.
- Bloomberg
Nestle Sees $250 Million Boost for Starbucks Products
(Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA expects to get about a quarter of a billion dollars in extra revenue from Starbucks-branded products this year after it began selling items including Nespresso-compatible capsules under a partnership with the U.S. coffee giant.Starbucks-branded merchandise will add about 250 million Swiss francs ($252 million) to sales this year, a spokesman said Tuesday in response to questions. Last year, Nestle paid more than $7 billion for licenses to use the Starbucks brand for products sold in grocery stores.The move has given a boost to Nespresso, where growth has eased due to competition from cheap imitation pods. Nestle has been hesitant to offer its coffee brand’s capsules in supermarkets because it prefers to keep control over how they’re sold. However, the Swiss company has been using the Starbucks tie-up as an avenue into grocery aisles.The alliance could help Nespresso return to annual revenue growth exceeding 10%, Patrice Bula, chairman of the brand, said in February. As part of the agreement, the world’s largest food company took over a $2 billion business that made Starbucks products for grocery stores.Nestle plans to add 10 more markets next year for the products, including Argentina, Colombia and Panama, which would bring the total to 50. The company will introduce Starbucks-branded soluble coffee next year and expand sales of the broader range to offices and hotels. (Updates last paragraph to include detail on expanded sales. An earlier version of this story corrected details of product in last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, John LauermanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance
CBD beverage founder: 'I want to be regulated'
Not nearly enough legislative ink has been spilled over the booming CBD industry, according to Benjamin Witte.
- Reuters
As population grows, human diet must cut down on meat, sugar, salt - Nestlé exec
Nestlé SA , one of the world's largest food processors, believes population growth will require human diets to adapt, reducing consumption of sugar, salt and meat products, an executive said on Wednesday. "We have 7.5 billion people and the population continues to grow, so there is a need to eat more vegetables, cereals, and less sugar, meat products," said Laurent Freixe, Executive Vice President and head of operations in the Americas.
- Reuters
In hungry Venezuela, food producers step up exports to survive
Shrimp farming is booming in this western Venezuelan city, but little of the shellfish is destined for tables in this malnourished nation. About 90% of this shrimp is headed for Europe and Asia - with the blessing of President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela's leader has lauded food exports on television as a way to raise hard currency to stabilise an economy in crisis.
- Reuters
Emerging markets come off the boil for Nestle and Unilever
ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - Global consumer goods companies have been banking on emerging markets to drive their growth, so signs on Thursday that sales have come off the boil in the once-booming economies of China and India could set alarm bells ringing. Unilever, Nestle and drinks group Pernod Ricard all pointed to slower progress in key Asian markets as a factor for muted sales growth over the last three months but for the time being are keeping targets intact. Packaged goods companies like these have been relying more on emerging markets to offset changing habits in developed economies, where growing numbers of consumers are turning to fresher foods, niche brands or cutting back on spending.
- Yahoo Finance UK
Kit Kat and Nesquik maker to hand investors up to £15.8bn
The food giant Nestle says business is booming for its Purina PetCare brand.
- Reuters - UK Focus
WRAPUP 2-Emerging markets come off the boil for Nestle and Unilever
ZURICH/LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Global consumer goods companies have been banking on emerging markets to drive their growth, so signs on Thursday that sales have come off the boil in the once-booming economies of China and India could set alarm bells ringing. Unilever, Nestle and drinks group Pernod Ricard all pointed to slower progress in key Asian markets as a factor for muted sales growth over the last three months but for the time being are keeping targets intact.
- Yahoo Finance
Study: Big food brands may be falling short on lofty climate goals
Brands McDonalds (MCD), Nestlé (NESN.SW), and Walmart (WMT) are championing climate action, but a network of investors said the big brand suppliers aren’t aligned with their messaging.
- IPO-Edge.com
IPO Edge Editor Jannarone Argues Why Impossible Foods May Go Public Soon – Cheddar TV
There are plenty of places to try out The Impossible Burger, from Restaurant Brands International Inc.'s Burger King to The Cheesecake Factory. Soon, investors may also be a bit to get a taste of publicly-listed shares. In an interview with Cheddar TV, IPO Edge Editor-in-Chief John Jannarone pointed out another reason to go public: the […]
- Reuters
Nestle Waters teams up with Ocean Legacy for plastic waste cleanup
Nestle's bottled water division Nestle Waters, owner of Perrier and Vittel, said it would team up with Canada's Ocean Legacy Foundation to help to clean up plastic pollution. Many of them, including Nestle and French peer Danone, have made voluntary pledges to make all of their plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Non-profit group Ocean Legacy Foundation fights plastic ocean pollution with clean-up expeditions, land-based plastic collection, recycling, education and pollution hot-spot mapping.
- Yahoo Finance
Beyond Meat's stock could fall 50%: Strategist
It seems nothing can stop Beyond Meat’s stock rally, not even a full-scale attack from meat giant, Tyson.
