ISLAMABAD: Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim Limited (FFBL) has appointed professional advisors to advise it on the proposed transaction with Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Limited, for the acquisition of 51 per cent of voting shares and/or control of Fauji Foods Limited (FFL). Lazard Saudi Arabia has been appointed as the lead financial advisor, Riaz Ahmad & Company, Chartered Accountants as the Joint Financial advisor and Chima & Ibrahim as the legal advisor by FFBL. CitiBank has been appointed as the manager to the offer by Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group for the acquisition. Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Limited had submitted a letter of intention to acquire a 51 percent stake in Fauji Foods back in July this year. The largest dairy producer in Asia and the eighth largest in the world, state-owned Yili started off as a small dairy-product processing factory in Inner Mongolia in 1993. Yili launched its first major overseas dairy operations in New Zealand in 2014. It also has a partnership with Italian dairy giant Sterilgarda Alimenti, and a European research and development center in the Netherlands, the first such overseas facility for a Chinese dairy company. The Chinese company is principally engaged in the processing, production and distribution of dairy products and mixed feedstuffs. The Company's major products include ice-cream, milk tea powder, sterilized milk, fresh milk, powdered milk, yoghurt, butter, cheese and organic milk. Yili’s wide range of powdered milk products and dairy drinks are specifically tailored for all age groups from infant to old age. Fauji Foods Limited (Formerly Noon Pakistan Limited) processes and sells milk, fruit juices and allied dairy products in Pakistan. It offers dairy products such as flavored milk, butter, whole pasteurized milk, cheese and UHT milk under the brand name Nurpur. Published in Daily Times, October 11th 2018.