Nestle to fund €9.1bn purchase of Pfizer’s baby-food unit with debt

Nestle plans to fund its $11.9bn (€9.1bn) acquisition of Pfizer’s baby-food unit with debt.

The purchase will help Nestle, already the top seller of infant-nutrition products, regain traction in the Chinese baby-food market, where it has been losing market share since 2005. The Pfizer unit gets about 85% of sales from emerging markets such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Nestle said the acquisition will lead to annual cost benefits of €122m and will boost earnings per share in the first full year.