Cadbury investors look for higher Kraft bid

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Reuters

The British confectioner has been fighting off the U.S. food giant's hostile cash and shares bid for over four months, and on Friday received support from its No. 2 shareholder Legal & General Investment Management Ltd (LGEN.L).

Adding to pressure on Kraft to raise its bid, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Friday that Hershey has concluded it has the financial muscle to top Kraft's offer and will likely make a bid next week of at least 800 pence to 820 pence, or $17.9 billion.

"Our position on Cadbury is unchanged; we continue to believe that the current Kraft bid does not reflect the long term value offered by the company on a stand-alone basis," said L&G's head of UK equities Mark Burgess in a statement.

L&G is Cadbury's second-largest investor with a 5.1 percent stake behind New Jersey-based Franklin Mutual Advisers with 7.7 percent. The UK investor also rejected the hostile bid on September 7, 2009, the day the offer for Cadbury was made public.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60E2HO20100117

[louis-t]

1. Mmmmmm, Cadbury......

[kiva]

2. Keep up the fight, guys.

Don't mess with my Cadbury...seriously, keep away from my chocolate.

[Zoeisright]

3. No kidding.

Cadbury chocolate is the best.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Cadbury agrees Kraft takeover bid

Cadbury is to be taken over by the US food company Kraft after its board approved a new increased bid.

The Cadbury board has advised its shareholders to accept a new offer of 840 pence a share - valuing the company at £11.5bn ($18.9bn).

Kraft said the deal would create a "global confectionery leader".

But there are renewed fears over possible job cuts at Cadbury's UK operations as a result of the agreed takeover.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8467007.stm

Not good, IMO. Cadbury switched Dairy Milk to being Fair Trade cocoa last year; I can't seen the mega-corporation Kraft doing things like that.