Ferrero no longer sweet on Cadbury
Italian confectionery giant Ferrero has today formally ruled itself out a potential bid for Cadbury on the eve of the deadline for new offers. There had been reports in some financial papers that Ferrero was looking towards a joint offer with Hershey but this has now gone by the wayside leaving the way open for Kraft Foods to acquire the UK operation. The American giants now has until 2 February to convince Cadbury shareholders to accept the offer, something which is likely to be successful bearing in mind the recommendation from the Cadbury board.
This latest move by Ferrero brings to a close the Cadbury saga which has swung many different ways over the last few months. After apparently looking elsewhere for a "white knight" Cadbury was eventually forced to give in and agree to the American offer which values the company at just under £12 billion. While this is the end of the road for one of the U.K.'s leading independent confectionery giants, it seems as though Kraft Foods is looking to invest significant amounts of money in the UK in the medium to longer term.
As the UK currency continues to struggle in international currency markets it seems almost inevitable we will see further foreign predatory action in the short term.
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