KKR looking to buy the cow and sell the milk in China

WORLD NEWS: "KKR Invests In Chinese Dairy Farm," by Rick Carew, Wall Street Journal, 2 December 2008.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, a legendary private-equity firm (aka hedge fund) is "betting around $100 million that it can help clean up China's scandal-tainted dairy industry by teaming up with the country's No. 1 milk producer to invest in a dairy-farm company."

Solid bottom-of-the-pyramid thinking by a firm famous for bottom feeding in tough times, and China's dairy industry certainly qualifies there.

The prize? That huge future dairy consumption market that is China's rising middle class consumers. China's consumption of dairy has skyrocketed several fold in the last decade, and still sits at less than one-third that of the U.S.

Comments

[RobQ]

There is a significan caveat there:"Around 90 percent of the Chinese adult population is thought to be lactose intolerant (ru tang mei que fa), which means they have low levels of the enzyme that normally digests lactose, the sugar found in milk and milk products."

Still, a big market for kids.