U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb is sounding out potential buyers for a possible sale of its Mead Johnson baby formula food business, which is valued at between $7 billion and $9 billion, the Financial Times said on Monday.
The newspaper, quoting people close to the situation, said Bristol had tentatively approached PepsiCo, Danone, Nestle, Kraft and HJ Heinz to test the appetite for a formal auction of Mead Johnson.
The group has also put out feelers to pharmaceutical companies with nutritional divisions.
"BMS has made informal approaches, but it has not yet started a sales process," the sources said told the paper.
Bristol declined to comment on the sale but said it continued to evaluate its strategic options for Mead Johnson and Convatec, the wound care products supplier it owns.
A sale of Mead Johnson would follow other recent moves to consolidate the baby food sector.
Last year Nestle spent $5.5 billion on acquiring the Gerber baby foods business from Novartis, while Danone bought Numico, the Dutch maker of baby food, for 12.3 billion euros ($16.4 billion).
