Frozen Pizza giant Kraft tried to woo British Candy Company Cadbury with a fresh bid of taking over on Tuesday after cracking a sale deal of its U.S Frozen Pizza Nestle. Kraft Foods is doing this because of the desire expressed by some Cadbury security holders to have a greater proportion of the offer in cash,” Kraft said in a statement. But Cadbury refused to buzz in saying that the bid made by Kraft is sort of ‘derisory’. “Despite this tinkering, the Kraft offer remains unchanged and derisory, with less than half the consideration in cash.” A Cadbury spokesman told CNN.
With the rumor windmill rolling, there were speculations that chocolate and confectionery giant Nestle may come in the picture and make its own offer for Cadbury. But that was rubbished by Nestle that it has no offer in its kitty for Cadbury. It also made it clear that the acquisition of Kraft’s frozen Pizza business was done to make more prominent presence in this sector of frozen pizza category in all of Europe.
The proceeds from the sale allow Kraft to offer more cash to Cadbury shareholders — 60 pence (96 cents) per share, Kraft said. Kraft originally offered Cadbury shareholders 300 pence ($4.81) and 0.26 Kraft shares for each share of Cadbury they own.
Kraft said it would use the sales proceedings of $3.7 billion of the pizza sale to increase the cash component of its Cadbury offer. Under Kraft’s proposal of a partial cash option, Cadbury shareholders can receive cash as well as Kraft shares if they accept Kraft’s deal.