Danone Communities, Danone’s business development fund dedicated to developing social causes linked to the food industry in poor countries, is beginning to shape.
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An almost unanimous vote by Danone’s shareholders in favour of the creation of the fund was made at the Group’s AGM at the end of last month. Another recent development is the appointment of Emmanuel Marchant, Danone’s Director of Strategic Studies, to head the fund, which will run as a SICAV open-ended investment company managed by French bank, Crédit Agricole.
Danone shareholders will be able to reinvest all or part of their dividends in the fund in the form of “social dividends” while Group employees, in particular those in France, will have the option of putting part of their profit-sharing entitlements into the fund. The fund will also be open to individual investors and institutions sharing an interest in this approach to development.
Danone alone is putting EUR20m (US$26.98m) into the fund whose first action will be to finance the first two (out of a total of 50) mini-production plants in Bangladesh making yoghurts for the local population at more or less at a cost price – a JV initiative with “Bank for the Poor”, Grameen.
