(BestGrowthStock) – Kraft Foods said on Tuesday it was confident it would finish its 11.7 billion pound ($18.6 billion) acquisition of Cadbury soon, after receiving 71.73 percent acceptances from Cadbury shareholders.
Following are some statistics on the new, combined company:
THE NEW COMPANY
* Will be No.1 in the chocolate and confectionery industry by revenue, overtaking Mars-Wrigley
* Will be No.2 in chewing gum market behind Mars-Wrigley
* Combined revenues of more $50 billion in 2008, bringing together Kraft’s $41.9 billion and Cadbury’s $8.8 billion. Kraft will remain the world’s second biggest food group behind Nestle.
* Will have 40 confectionery brands that each have annual sales in excess of $100 million
* Kraft’s 98,000 employees will join with Cadbury’s global workforce of over 45,000.
* Will have leading position in developing markets, including in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Mexico.
* Cadbury brands such as Dairy Milk bars, Roses chocolates, Trident gum and Halls cough drops join such Kraft products as Toblerone and Milka chocolate bars and Oreo cookies.
OFFER DETAILS
* Cadbury shareholders will receive 500 pence cash and 0.1874 new Kraft share for each Cadbury share.
* For each Cadbury American depository share (ADS), shareholders will receive 2,000 pence and 0.7496 new Kraft share.
* Offer equates to 840 pence per Cadbury share and 3,360 pence per Cadbury ADS, based on a Kraft share price and exchange rate when terms announced on January 19.
* Full acceptance will result in the issue of 265 million new Kraft shares, representing 15 percent of its enlarged share capital.
RATIONALE
* Kraft sees cost savings of at least $675 million annually realized by the end of the third year at an implementation cost of $1.3 billion.
* Accretion to earnings per share in 2011 of approximately $0.05 on a cash basis.
* Kraft sees return on investment well in excess of its cost of capital.
* Kraft expects to revise long-term growth targets to 5 percent plus for revenue from 4 percent plus, and between 9 and 11 percent for earnings per share from between 7 and 9 percent.
* Increased scale for both companies in developing markets such as Brazil, Russia and China, where Kraft has a stronger presence, and in India, Mexico and South Africa, where Cadbury holds leading positions.
Investment Tools
(Compiling by David Jones; editing by Karen Foster)
($1=.6278 Pound)
Factbox: Kraft/Cadbury combined vital statistics
