DOWN TO 22 ACQUISITIONS IN MAY

But they included two enormous transactions. Mexican soft drinks bottlers Arca and Contal merged to form a company worth $7 billion and DuPont from the United States completed its $6.4 billion purchase of Denmark’s Danisco ingredients business. Also of significance were General Mills gaining 51% of Yoplait yogurt and PepsiCo buying the final 13.5% of Russia’s Wimm-Bill-Dann. 5 of the 22 were in food, 4 in alcohol, 4 in dairy, 4 in soft drinks and 3 in ingredients. As almost always, the United States was the most active on 9, followed by the United Kingdom on 5. Denmark was the biggest seller on 4. Just 16 countries were involved in May’s dealings.