There’s one born every minute – or that, at least, is what Nestlé’s latest acquisition implies. The Swiss food group is paying a hefty $12bn for Pfizer’s infant nutrition business. At first that looks a rich price for the US pharmaceutical group’s Pfizer Nutrition unit, which makes milk formula. But then, 85 per cent of its sales are to emerging markets. And Nestlé knows that the latter account for almost three-quarters of the $30bn global baby food market, which is growing at about 10 per cent a year. China is expected to account for almost half that growth. Asia does make the dealcompelling. Even so, it is hard to escape the impression that Pfizer has somehow injected some Viagra into the deal.
每分鐘都有一個人出生——或者，這至少是雀巢公司(Nestlé)最新收購行動所暗示的那樣。該瑞士食品集團爲購買輝瑞公司(Pfizer)的嬰兒營養品業務支付了120億美元鉅款。乍一看，是這家美國製藥集團高價出售了主要生產配方奶粉的營養品業務。可話說回來，其85%的銷售面向新興市場。而雀巢公司清楚知道，後者佔有總值300億美元、且每年成長大約10%的全球嬰兒食品市場近四分之三的份額。預計其中一半成長來自中國。亞洲市場的格局確實讓這場交易令人信服。但即便如此，人們難免留下這樣一種印象，即輝瑞以某種方式向這場交易注入了一種類似「偉哥」的東西。