Dairy Crest, Lactalis linked in merger rumours

UK-based Dairy Crest (producers of Cathedral City cheddar) has been named as a potential takeover target, despite a firm denial that it was in formal talks with potential French buyer Lactalis.

Shares in Britain’s second-largest milk supplier rose 10.5% to a three-year high of 534p after a board statement that no “indicative offer” had been received from its French rival Lactalis or anyone else, a report in the Guardian says.
The Irish dairy group, Kerry, and other big cooperatives, such as Friesland and Campina, are also seen as other potential buyers for Dairy Crest, which lost a