Brussels, 16/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised the US company General Mills Inc to acquire sole control of the Pillsbury Company. The move will be achieved via the acquisition by General Mills of Diageo Plc shares through a share swap. Diageo would, after the transaction, own around 33% of the enlarged General Mills group. The latter would then rank fifth in the packaged consumer foods sector with a turnover of around $13 billion.
By approving this operation, the Commission considers that the activities of the companies were complementary. General Mills is specialised in cake and desert mixes and ready-to-eat cereals while Pillsbury is mainly active in frozen pastry, refrigerated baked goods, Häagen Das ice cream, packaged Mexican food and tinned and frozen vegetables. Any overlapping that might occur in the cakes and pastries sector would not entail competition problems given the low accumulated market shares.