ITALY – Italian food group Parmalat has said this week that it is no longer in exclusive talks to buy Danone’s Italian subsidiary, Galbani.

However, reports suggest that Danone is now in talks with buyout specialist BC Partners about the sale of the company, which mainly produces cheese and ham.

In a statement, a Parmalat spokesperson said: “We no longer have exclusivity rights but talks are still going on, including with us.” Galbani is believed to be worth around 1.5 billion euro, and discussions with Parmalat are thought to have collapsed because the company would only offer 1.1 billion euro for the company.

Danone is selling Galbani because it is now concentrating on its core activities of mineral water, fresh dairy products and biscuits.

Also this week, Danone has renamed its range of non-organic Bio yogurts. They will now be known as Activia.

French authorities claimed that the Bio name was too close to the French word ‘biologique’, which means organic, and demanded that the name be changed by 2006.