28 April 2008
March and Warren Buffett buy chewing gum Wrigley
The U.S. confectionery March joined with billionaire Warren Buffett to buy Wrigley, world's leading manufacturer of chewing gum, for $ 23 billion (14.7 billion euros), and train and the world's number one confectionery.
This agreement will give Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's group, a minority equity participation of Wrigley, who will become a separate subsidiary of March. The remaining assets of Buffett in the food sector include participation in the American Kraft Foods.
Berkshire could hold a stake representing more than 10% of Wrigley, according to the latter.
March adds that, Berkshire, American banks Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan also fund the acquisition of Wrigley.
March specify in a statement that the agreement was approved by the boards of both groups. Wrigley's shareholders will receive $ 80 cash per
share, which represents a premium of 28% with respect to the closing of title Wrigley Friday to 62.45 dollars.
"The combination of these two groups creates a confectionery giant with a global scale and a strong presence in emerging markets," said Mitch Corwin, an analyst at Morningstar. "This represents a great premium on action (Wrigley), which is already placed high in the sector."
The ratio of price / earnings 2009 Wrigley is 23, the second multiple in the Standard & Poor's values of this segment of the food.
Wrigley is facing increasing competition in the chewing gum on the part of Cadbury Schweppes with brands such as Dentyne and Trident.
The association March-Wrigley could force the U.S. Hershey, competitor of March, to forge an agreement with Cadbury Schweppes, while discussions have already taken place between them in the past.
Wrigley March and together held 14.4% of the global market for confectionery in 2006, against 10.1% for Cadbury.
March, a group unlisted securities, owns brands like M & M's, Snickers and Twix.
The majority of Wrigley securities are owned by the family of the same name, originally from Chicago.
Wrigley announced Monday a parallel increase in its net profit in the first quarter to $ 168.6 million, or 61 cents per title, against 142.7 million, or 52 cents per share, a year earlier, thanks to the weakness of dollar, which has supported its sales abroad.
The group said that the weakness of the dollar has increased by 7 cents the BPA.
The turnover has increased by almost 16% to 1.45 billion dollars against 1.25 billion a year earlier, the effects of exchange contributing to the positive half of this increase.
The title was Wrigley jumped more than 23% to $ 76.93 in early afternoon on the NYSE.
by erectusplus at 18:42:00 |
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