The purchase is the latest move by the company to accelerate its internationalisation.

Yili earlier this year upgraded its European Innovation Centre in cooperation with Netherlands-based Wageningen University in the Global Dairy Mount Everest, and later introduced its products to Indonesia via a listing on the local market.

Pan Gang, president of Yili Group, said that acquiring Chomthana “is an important measure for Yili to gather global energy and deepen mutual benefit, and achieve a win-win situation”. Zhang Jianqiu, CEO of Yili Group, said: “In the process of promoting internationalisation, Yili always adheres to the concept of ‘openness, cooperation and win-win’, and devotes itself to the dream of ‘making the world healthy’.

With the deepening of global economic integration, Yili accelerates the pace of internationalisation with the help of “the belt and road”, the chief executive said.

From global networking to building a “global wisdom chain”, Yili continues to promote the global dairy industry with complementary resources, innovative synergy and mutual benefits, Zhang added.

Yili’s revenue growth rate remained in double digits from 2008 to 2015, and had exceeded 68 billion yuan (Bt323 billion) by 2017, ranking it first in the industry with year-on-year growth of 12.29 per cent.

The return on net assets has remained above 20 per cent for many years, ranking the company first in the world’s dairy industry.

The acquisition of Chomthan will further enhance Yili’s performance and deepen the win-win cooperation of the global dairy industry, the Chinese company added.