France's Lactalis buys Saputo's British dairy unit in $1.34 billion deal

PARIS, Aug 14 (Reuters) - French dairy giant Lactalis reached an agreement to buy Canadian rival Saputo's unit in Britain in a deal valuing the business at 988 million pounds ($1.34 billion), the companies said on Friday.

• After the acquisition, Lactalis will become a leader on the British cheddar, butter and margarine markets, Lacatalis said in a statement.

• Saputo's British business includes the Cathedral City and Davistow cheddar brands and Wensleydale Creamery cheese and Country Life butter as well as the Clover and Utterly Butterly margarines, added Lactalis.

• Saputo's Britain unit employs 1,300 people and it makes 94% of its sales revenues in Britain, Lactalis said.

($1 = 0.7386 pounds)

($1 = 0.8645 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)