Kraft appoints bankers to sell Cadbury businesses: report
Kraft appoints bankers to sell Cadbury businesses: report
London: Kraft Foods has hired bankers HSBC and BNP Paribas to sell the Polish and Romanian businesses of Cadbury, paving way for the American confectionery giant taking over the British chocolatier, a media report says.
“HSBC has been mandated to sell the Polish confectionery business and French bank BNP Paribas is understood to have been hired to sell the Romanian chocolate business," the online edition of the UK daily Telegraph said.
In January, Kraft said it would takeover Cadbury in a cash-and-stock deal worth about 11.9 billion.
“A sale of the two assets, which is unlikely to generate more than €500 million, was demanded by the Europe Commission as a stipulation for Kraft’s acquisition of Cadbury going through," the report added.
The European Commission had in January cleared the deal, but said the takeover would give rise to competition concerns in the Polish and Romanian chocolate confectionery markets.
Following which Kraft committed to divest Cadbury’s Polish confectionery business and its Romanian chocolate business to obtain clearance for acquisition of the American confectionery firm.
The Commission had said Kraft had a very strong presence in most member states, except UK and Ireland, while Cadbury had strong presence in the EU countries such as France, Poland, Romania and Portugal through local brands which it acquired.
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