A regulatory milestone has been reached in Nestlé's partial exit from bottled water. The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it had approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the joint acquisition of Nestlé Waters, a Luxembourg entity, by the American investment company Platinum Equity and by Nestlé. Contacted by the AWP news agency, the Vevey-based group had not yet responded.
What Brussels found
According to the Commission, the transaction, which is to give rise to the joint venture Peranel, “mainly concerns the supply of bottled water”, as well as other beverages. It considers that the transaction “would not raise competition concerns, given that the companies are not active in the same market or in vertically related markets”.
This approval is a finding: it relates solely to the effect of the transaction on competition in the European Union. It says nothing about Peranel's strategy or its future results.
The plan: half of the water business sold
It was in July that Nestlé announced it had found this American financial partner for Nestlé Waters. The group plans to sell half of its bottled water business, which comprises “more than 30 brands whose products are sold in 120 countries”, including S.Pellegrino, Perrier and Acqua Panna.
The peranel.com website, already online, lists several of these brands: Henniez from French-speaking Switzerland, the French brands Perrier, Vittel, Contrex and Hépar, as well as Sohat in Lebanon and Buxton in the United Kingdom.
In terms of figures, the transaction values Peranel at 4.9 billion euros, or 4.5 billion francs. Nestlé also expects to receive around 2.8 billion francs in the first half of next year, an amount greater than half of this valuation. The source does not detail how this sum is calculated.
Why Nestlé is parting with its water business
The Nestlé Waters division was hit by the scandal over illegal filters used to treat mineral waters in France. Nestlé had been seeking to withdraw from it since 2024. The source does not specify any other strategic reasons or the role of current management in this decision.
What comes next
The next steps are a matter of forecast. At the end of July, Nestlé expected the transaction to be finalised in the first half of 2027. The source does not indicate whether other approvals are still pending before closing.
For Switzerland, the most direct link is through Henniez, which is among Peranel's brands, and through the group's headquarters in Vevey. Any effects on employment in Switzerland are not mentioned in the source.
