In 1996, Danone-Wahaha Alliance Jinjia Investment Co., Ltd. (established in Singapore by Danone Asia and Hong Kong Peregrine, Danone is the controlling shareholder), Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co., Ltd., and Zhejiang Wahaha Industrial Co., Ltd. *** jointly contributed capital, and *** jointly established five joint ventures, with shareholding ratios of 51, 39 and 10 respectively.
Trademark transfer from 1997 to 1999. Wahaha and Danone signed a "Trademark Transfer Agreement" to transfer the "Wahaha" trademark to the joint venture. However, the National Trademark Office did not approve this; the two parties signed it again in 1999 "Trademark License Contract".
Development of Wahaha Non-joint venture companies Since 1997, non-joint venture companies under the Wahaha Group have grown and developed, and their products continue to use the "Wahaha" trademark.
In 1998, Danone Holdings' Hong Kong Peregrine sold its equity in Jinjia Investment Co., Ltd. to Danone, and Danone became the sole shareholder of Jinjia Company, thus obtaining the controlling position of Wahaha Joint Venture 51.
Danone acquired other Chinese companies from 2000 to 2006. Danone successively held 92 shares of Robust, 50 shares of Meilin Zhengguanghe, 20.1 shares of Guangming, and 22.18 shares of Huiyuan.
The Dawa dispute broke out in April 2006. Danone requested to acquire the equity of Wahaha's non-joint venture 51 at a net asset price of 4 billion yuan. However, it encountered strong resistance from Wahaha and the Dawa dispute broke out.
The peace talks in Dawa from December 2007 to April 2008 were coordinated by the two governments. The two sides suspended legal procedures and conducted peace talks. Danone requested to sell its equity of less than 1.4 billion yuan invested in the joint venture to Wahaha for about 20 billion yuan. The price was calculated based on the average price-earnings ratio of listed companies, but Wahaha rejected it.
Dawa’s lawsuit from May 2007 to present In May 2007, Danone officially launched legal proceedings against Wahaha. Since then, the two sides have engaged in dozens of domestic and foreign legal battles, of which the British Virgin Islands (BVI) case and the United States case are typical examples.
BVI case: In November 2007, Danone misled the courts in the BVI and Samoa to issue freezing orders on the assets of foreign shareholders of Wahaha’s non-joint venture company without the defendant being present and making no defense. Taking over order. In December 2008, the judge saw through Danone's misleading and concealing behavior and revoked the freezing order and takeover order. Previously, in November 2008, the Jiangsu Suqian Intermediate People's Court ruled that KPMG, designated by Danone, was illegal in sending takeover letters in China and constituted an infringement on Wahaha.
U.S. case: Danone filed a lawsuit against Zong Qinghou’s wife and daughter as well as two other unrelated companies in the United States. The California court dismissed Danone’s lawsuit based on the principle of non-convenience and required it to file it in a Chinese court. litigation.
As of May 2009, Wahaha leads Danone 23:0 in the legal battle.
On September 30, 2009, Danone and Wahaha issued a statement saying that they had reached a settlement. Danone and Wahaha Group announced on September 30, 2009 that the two parties had reached a friendly settlement, and Danone agreed to transfer its shares in various Danone-Wahaha joint ventures. A 51% stake in the company was sold to the Chinese joint venture partner. After the settlement agreement is executed, the parties will terminate all legal proceedings related to the dispute between the parties.