Paris, Oct 23 - French food group Danone is set to sell its Frucor fruit juice unit by the end of the month and will garner almost 600 million euros ($771 million) from the sale, a source close to the talks said on Thursday.
Danone said in August that it was reviewing the future of Frucor because of a refocus on purity in its waters division.
Frucor sells fruit juices, fruit drinks, energy drinks, waters and soft drinks in New Zealand and Australia.
The sale would help Danone reduce its debt, which rose to 11 billion euros after the purchase of Dutch baby food group Numico for 12.3 billion in 2007.
Danone said on Thursday that the sale of Frucor was progressing well but that the company was not ready to make an announcement.
An industry source had told Reuters on Wednesday that Japan's largest beer maker, Asahi Breweries, was in a leading position in a bid for Frucor.
Shares in Danone were 1.35 percent lower at 40.84 euros by 1048 GMT on Thursday, outperforming a 3 percent drop on France's benchmark CAC-40 index.