Hershey, Ferrero Lay Offer for Cadbury

The two leading chocolate manufacturers in the world, Hershey Co. and Ferrero International SA, on Wednesday expressed interest to bid for the acquisition of British sweets maker Cadbury PLC.

According to Hershey, the largest American candy manufacturer, it will start bidding for Cadbury in a hope to expand its market overseas. The company is now lining up potential business partners, including Ferrero, for the said acquisition.

“Hershey is now conducting a thorough review of all options. However, at this stage, there is still no assurance that an offer or a proposal from the company will be forthcoming,” officials said.

Meanwhile, the Italian chocolate company Ferrero has also expressed interest in acquiring the British candy maker with its more superior financial firepower. Ferrero has popular products like Tic Tacs and Nutell chocolate spread under its belt.

The partnership of Hershey and Ferrero may as well be the dark horse in the bidding process, outshining Kraft Inc, which had earlier expressed interest to buy Cadbury.But experts believe that Kraft has more cash than Hershey, giving it more power to bargain for the said bidding.

Meanwhile, others said that Hershey will put up a strong fight for Cadbury, saying that the strong international portfolio of the UK candy maker would be more important to the long-term success of the American giant.With the newly invigorated bidding process, analysts said that the value of Cadbury could further push up. Officials declined to reveal the real value of the company.