Cadbury maintains position on Kraft’s offer, spokesman says
Employees enter the Cadbury offices in Birmingham. Photo: Bloomberg
Cadbury hasn’t changed its position on a £9.9bn (€10.9bn) offer from Kraft Foods, according to Trevor Datson, a Cadbury spokesman.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Chief Executive Officer Todd Stitzer had softened his tone in an interview yesterday.
“I would never say there’s not some strategic sense in these businesses coming together,” Stitzer said. In Europe, Brazil, Russia and China, the two companies share some complementary aspects, he told the newspaper.
“This is not a change in stance,” Datson said by telephone. “Clearly, there are some synergies that could be realised in a deal.”
Earlier this month Kraft made public its offer to buy Cadbury for cash and stock. The bid is valued at £9.9bn, based on the US company’s closing share price yesterday. London-based Cadbury rejected the offer as too low.
Lisa Gibbons, a Kraft spokeswoman, declined in an e-mail to comment on remarks by Stitzer and his spokesman.
Representatives of the two companies haven’t met since Cadbury Chairman Roger Carr sat down with Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld in London on August 28, according to Datson.
“Under your proposal, Cadbury would be absorbed into Kraft’s low growth, conglomerate business model, an unappealing prospect which contrasts sharply with our strategy,” Carr said in a letter dated September 12. Kraft is “a company with a considerably less focused business mix and historically lower growth,” he wrote.
(Bloomberg)
- Duane D. Stanford
