Eijeijei… This Is Your Food

Throughout the last month, various developments took place, inter alia a concrete bid was proposed and a further potential buyer appeared on the horizon.

First of all, we’re now speaking about a concrete number: the hostile takeover offer is as high as £10.1bn.

The US company has stuck to the terms of its original proposal, offering Cadbury shareholders 300p in cash and 0.2589 Kraft shares for every Cadbury share. That values Cadbury at 713p per share, based on recent exchange rates and a Kraft share price of $26.50. Cadbury’s shares closed at 795p on Friday. (Financial Times, 2009)

Shareholders may decide to accept this offer until January 5th with Kraft still having the option to increase their offer.

Second of all, further companies show interest in Cadbury.

Hershey has also been considering making a bid.
Nestlé may play a role if Hershey makes an offer – analysts have suggested the Swiss food group could be interested in Cadbury’s gum and medicated sweets.
Italian group Ferrero, owner of Ferrero Rocher, Kinder, Tic Tac and Nutella, is also a possible buyer of some Cadbury brands. (Financial Times, 2009)

This chocolate battle is staying highly interesting as Cabury is expected to become more “proactive” as the offer period is coming to an end.

Through all this speculations several questions still remain unanswered: What will happen to local employees? What will happen to the product lines? Will Cabury loose its “British identity”? I’m wondering if stockholders are considering those questions when thinking about selling their stocks.