My column in the FT this week is on the Cadbury takeover battle:
If British takeover battles were decided on personal chemistry and corporate culture, rather than how much money the shareholders are offered, Kraft’s hostile $16.2bn (€10.8bn, £9.8bn) bid for Cadbury would be doomed.
Having irritated Roger Carr, Cadbury’s chairman, by dropping in for tea and talking about money, Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft’s chief executive, felt the chill of British contempt. Her bid was dismissed as a “derisory” offer from a “low-growth conglomerate”.
The message, couched in terms the Takeover Panel would accept, was clear enough. Just because American soldiers came over here with their Hershey bars in the war and took our women, don’t think an American woman can come back with dollars and take our Dairy Milk.
Takeovers in the UK are not, however, decided by such things. Unlike in the US, where boards can erect barriers to hostile bids under the jurisdiction of Delaware where most large companies are incorporated, money decides. “It is bloody difficult to imagine a board recommending the lower of two offers,” says one City banker.
Please read the rest here and comment below.
