In what will be its second major Latin American acquisition in recent years, France-based Groupe Lactalis SA recently announced that it plans to purchase Brazilian dairy company Itambé Alimentos SA during the first half of 2018, subject to approval.

According to Reuters, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said Lactalis will pay about $600 million to the cooperative that owns Itambé.

Lactalis already owns several dairy brands in Brazil and acquired dairy plants from the world’s largest poultry exporter, BRF SA, in 2014 for 1.8 billion reals ($557 million), Reuters said.

Lactalis is a family-owned dairy group based in Laval (Mayenne), in the west of France, that employs 75,000 people and owns more than 230 industrial plants in 43 different countries. It is the number-one dairy group in the world and the number-one dairy and cheese group, milk collector and cheese producer in Europe.