Ferrero is to reveal in the coming days whether it will table an offer for Cadbury as talks with Hershey over a joint offer for the UK confectioner come to an end, just-food understands.
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The Italian group has been linked to a possible takeover bid for Cadbury since November, when the Ferrero Rocher maker declared an interest in the business.
Cadbury has until now received just one formal takeover bid, a hostile GBP10.5bn (US$17bn) offer from Kraft Foods, which the UK firm again today (12 January) labelled “derisory”.
Ferrero declined to comment on the state of any talks with Hershey or with two private-equity firms with which the company has been linked – KKR and Blackstone.
Ferrero or any other party prepared to launch a counter-bid for Cadbury must table an offer by 23 January.
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By GlobalDataShares in Cadbury were down 0.6% at 16:09 GMT at 776p this afternoon on a day when the Dairy Milk maker told its shareholders the business had had an “outstanding” year.
The company, which also makes Halls candy and Trident gum, again derided Kraft’s cash-and-stock offer, which values the business at 763p.
Analysts have argued since Kraft’s first approach in September that the US food giant would need to make a bid worth at least 800p a share to succeed.
