Sep 21, 2004 11:17 AM, from staff and wire reports

Dallas TX-based dairy producer Dean Foods Co will purchase Parmalat USA Corp’s Milk Products of Alabama LLC unit for $21.6 million in cash.

Dean outbid rival National Dairy Holdings LP, and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan then approved the sale, according to Gary Holtzer of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. This transaction is set to close by the end of September 2004.

Parmalat USA, the Wallington NJ-based unit of financially troubled Italian grocery giant Parmalat Finanziarla SPA, intends to reorganize around its Farmland Dairies LLC division and its New York and New Jersey assets.