General Mills (NYSE:GIS) said yesterday that the company remains on track to achieve double-digit growth in reported earnings per share for its 2001 fiscal year, which ends May 27, 2001. In the previous fiscal year, the company’s earnings totaled $2.00 per diluted share. Through the first nine months of this year, General Mills’ diluted earnings per share totaled $1.78, up 10 percent from results for the first nine months of fiscal 2000. The company plans to report fiscal 2001 fourth-quarter and full-year results on Wednesday, June 27, 2001.
General Mills’ fiscal 2001 performance is not expected to include any results of the worldwide Pillsbury operations that it has agreed to acquire from Diageo plc (NYSE:DEO LSE:DGE). “We’ve completed all the steps required to close this transaction with the exception of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) review,” said General Mills Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Sanger. “The FTC is reviewing our plans for the sale of Pillsbury’s dessert and specialty products businesses to International Multifoods Corporation (NYSE:IMC). We are actively working with the FTC to facilitate their review, but we think it’s unlikely that they will be finished before our current fiscal year ends. As a result, we’d anticipate closing our transaction during the first quarter of the new fiscal year.
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“While it’s taken longer than we estimated to complete this acquisition,” Sanger said, “we are more convinced than ever that the combination of General Mills and Pillsbury will result in faster growth, significant cost synergies, and strong value creation for our shareholders.”
