It is fitting that Danone should choose the backdrop of National Day, China's carefully choreographed celebration of unity, to make an exit from various joint ventures with Hangzhou Wahaha, the country's leading drinks group. After two and a half years of mostly fruitless legal battles, small victories are all it has left.

Both sides describe an “amicable” settlement, putting an end to at least 30 separate disputes between the French food group and its Chinese partner. But the partnership has been anything but.

From the outset, it had two fundamental flaws. The first was its structure – a messy ménage a trois. At the formation in early 1996, Wahaha and Danone were joined by Hong Kong-based Baifu. Together, Danone and Baifu invested in the JV via Jinjia, a Singapore-based company, which took a 51 per cent interest – 25.5 per cent each – against Wahaha's 49. Since Wahaha chairman Zong Qinghou felt he controlled the venture, he was happy to transfer the group's trademark into it. When Danone bought out Baifu's interest in Jinjia two years later, the fur started to fly.