Cadbury break free as new companies start to circle

Monday, 23 November 2009

More companies have now entered the scene and are circling Cadbury on the high winds. What they do not realise is that the shareholders are rather a different breed from what they previously expected. Kennedy’s reported that this would be no easy battle to acquire Cadbury two months ago and once again, it appears to be someone else’s turn to go for the prize - enter Hershey and possibly Fererro and Nestle as well. The US chocolate producer Hershey, is considering a bid of around (£10billion). According to The Wall Street Journal, Friday 20th November Hershey may be raising the stakes with The Bank of America and JP Morgan. The Bid, it’s rumoured, may be a joint one with Ferrero. In the mean time, Cadbury are sticking to their values of remaining a “standalone pure-play confectioner”. This statement came soon after the bid from Kraft was rejected at £9.8billion. Ferrero and Hershey have both made statements last month claiming that they are considering a joint bid though (at time of writing) no bid has been made. It is also reported that Nestle are currently weighing up the options. Nestlé has said in October it was likely to exercise its option beginning in January 2010 to sell its remaining 52% stake in Alcon, potentially raising up to $US28 billion and therefore putting them in a strong position to raise the funding needed. Cadbury's chairman Roger Carr, told the Sunday Telegraph in London (November) his group would prefer a merger with Hershey rather than Kraft, adding that both bids could fail should they not be generous enough.

 

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