Cadbury's isn't the first British institution to be sold to overseas bidders.Here are some of the biggest UK firms now in foreign hands.
Cadbury may be the latest but it certainly won't be the last British firm to fall into foreign hands.
Many household names have fallen prey to bid attention from their competitors or other interested parties over the years and all had different ways of playing the cat and mouse game that is the acquisition process. While some played hard to get, others simply fell into the arms of their suitors
Cadbury
Iconic British confectioner Cadbury is to be swallowed up by US processed food giant Kraft in a sweetened deal worth £11.5 billion.
After five months of heated negotiations, the 186-year old maker of Dairy Milk finally caved in and the Cadbury board is now recommending shareholders back the deal.
Terry’s
Long before Cadbury became a bid target, Kraft added British confectioner Terry's to its stable of brand names in 1993.
United Biscuit Holdings sold off the UK's fourth largest chocolate company at the time in a $321 million deal.
However, Kraft went on to shut down Terry's chocolate factory in York in 2005 and moved the production of the famous chocolate orange to cheaper plants in Poland and Slovakia, leading to fears it could do the same to Cadbury sites in Bristol and Bournville.
If all goes according to plan, the combined group will be one of the biggest food and confectionary businesses in the world, although shareholders may yet take some convincing.
Rowntree
Another confectioner, Rowntree, was the original maker of chocoholics' favourites Kit Kat and Aero.
In 1988, the 126-year old York-based group became the subject of a bitter and controversial takeover battle between two Swiss giants, Nestle and Jacobs Suchard.
Nestle emerged victorious with a £2.55 billion bid. After the takeover, the Rowntree name was eventually dropped from the packaging, apart from on its range of fruit pastilles and fruit gums.
Boots
High street stalwart Boots became the first FTSE 100 company to be bought by a private equity firm in June 2007.
KKR and Boots' deputy chairman Stefano Pessina shelled out £11.1 billion for the group following a bidding war with an investment consortium led by Guy Hands and Terra Firma.
Despite fears the group would be stripped of its assets to pay down the debt amassed by its buyers, Alliance Boots has been performing well. In 2009 it saw a 15% rise in full-year sales to £20.5 billion with trading profit up by almost 12% to £953 million. However, the company still had net debt of £9 billion at the end of March.
Asda
Asda became part of the Wal-Mart empire in July 1999 and is currently the US behemoth's fourth-largest overseas chain with 368 outlets across the UK.
Wal-Mart launched a last-minute swoop on the supermarket chain, which was in very advanced talks with retailer Kingfisher, and emerged victorious with its £6.7 billion offer.
Asda, which prides itself on its good value grocery, is now second only to Tesco in terms of supermarket size in the UK with the latest figures from TNS Worldpanel showing it has a 16.9% market share.
Abbey,Bradford & Bingley,Alliance & Leicester
Three of the most familiar names in high street banking will soon be a distant memory after Spanish banking titan Santander completes its rebrand later this year.
Abbey joined the Santander family in 2004 in a deal worth more than £8 billion followed by Alliance & Leicester in June 2008 for £1.26 billion.
Santander then snapped up the retail deposits and branch network of Bradford & Bingley in September 2008 for £612 million with the remainder of the struggling lender being taken under the government's wing.
O2
Mobile telecoms firm O2 enjoyed a very short life as an independent company with just over four years between its emergence from BT's mobile communications businesses and its £17.7 billion takeover by Spanish group Telefonica.
Telefonica said at the time that O2 would retain its existing brand and would remain in the UK. O2 is now one of the UK's biggest mobile phone network providers with more than 18 million customers in the country boosted by an exclusive deal with iPhone in 2008.
Powergen
Former FTSE 100 electricity group Powergen moved from British to German ownership in 2002 after a year long wait to get the go-ahead from regulators.
The £9.6 billion deal was held up by US officials pouring over the paperwork involving Powergen's Kentucky utility LG&E.
In December 2007 the Powergen name became defunct with all communications going under the E.ON banner.
Scottish Power
E.ON had less success with electricity provider Scottish Power which flatly turned down its £10.7 billion approach in November 2005.
However, Scottish Power wasn't destined to stay independent for long. When Spanish energy firm Iberdrola came sniffing round, it jumped at the £11.6 billion takeover bid and created Europe's third-largest utility company in November 2006.
British Energy
The UK's nuclear energy strategy was kick started in action with the £12.5 billion takeover of British Energy by French giant EDF in September 2008.
This gave EDF control of all British Energy's nuclear power stations with plans to build four more new nuclear reactors in the UK. These could generate electricity to meet more than 13% of the UK's projected energy demand by the early 2020s.
The UK government, which held a 36% stake in British Energy through its Nuclear Liabilities Fund, enjoyed a £4.4 billion windfall from the deal.
Pilkington Glass
UK glass manufacturer Pilkington moved from British to Japanese hands after three months of talks in February 2006.
Japan's Nippon Glass finally paid £1.8 billion for the 80% of the 180-year-old glassmaker it did not already own after the UK group rejected its two initial bids.(my view)-These "English People" who has sold us down the river,they are scum and NOT english and never were in my eyes.....england is NOT england anymore,and i for one do not want to live in a country that i grew up in anymore...this country isn't my home,i'm sick and tired now,england is becoming to ETHNIC,to GHETTO,to BRONXY,to VIOLENT....all because the government let this fuckers in-in the name of progress...where's the progress?....their stealing OUR jobs,raping and father/mothering OUR men/women,stealing,B'and'E-ing,killing us...need i go on?
Iconic British confectioner Cadbury is to be swallowed up by US processed food giant Kraft in a sweetened deal worth £11.5 billion.
After five months of heated negotiations, the 186-year old maker of Dairy Milk finally caved in and the Cadbury board is now recommending shareholders back the deal.
Long before Cadbury became a bid target, Kraft added British confectioner Terry's to its stable of brand names in 1993.
United Biscuit Holdings sold off the UK's fourth largest chocolate company at the time in a $321 million deal.
However, Kraft went on to shut down Terry's chocolate factory in York in 2005 and moved the production of the famous chocolate orange to cheaper plants in Poland and Slovakia, leading to fears it could do the same to Cadbury sites in Bristol and Bournville.
If all goes according to plan, the combined group will be one of the biggest food and confectionary businesses in the world, although shareholders may yet take some convincing.
Another confectioner, Rowntree, was the original maker of chocoholics' favourites Kit Kat and Aero.
In 1988, the 126-year old York-based group became the subject of a bitter and controversial takeover battle between two Swiss giants, Nestle and Jacobs Suchard.
Nestle emerged victorious with a £2.55 billion bid. After the takeover, the Rowntree name was eventually dropped from the packaging, apart from on its range of fruit pastilles and fruit gums.
High street stalwart Boots became the first FTSE 100 company to be bought by a private equity firm in June 2007.
KKR and Boots' deputy chairman Stefano Pessina shelled out £11.1 billion for the group following a bidding war with an investment consortium led by Guy Hands and Terra Firma.
Despite fears the group would be stripped of its assets to pay down the debt amassed by its buyers, Alliance Boots has been performing well. In 2009 it saw a 15% rise in full-year sales to £20.5 billion with trading profit up by almost 12% to £953 million. However, the company still had net debt of £9 billion at the end of March.
Asda became part of the Wal-Mart empire in July 1999 and is currently the US behemoth's fourth-largest overseas chain with 368 outlets across the UK.
Wal-Mart launched a last-minute swoop on the supermarket chain, which was in very advanced talks with retailer Kingfisher, and emerged victorious with its £6.7 billion offer.
Asda, which prides itself on its good value grocery, is now second only to Tesco in terms of supermarket size in the UK with the latest figures from TNS Worldpanel showing it has a 16.9% market share.
Three of the most familiar names in high street banking will soon be a distant memory after Spanish banking titan Santander completes its rebrand later this year.
Abbey joined the Santander family in 2004 in a deal worth more than £8 billion followed by Alliance & Leicester in June 2008 for £1.26 billion.
Santander then snapped up the retail deposits and branch network of Bradford & Bingley in September 2008 for £612 million with the remainder of the struggling lender being taken under the government's wing.
Mobile telecoms firm O2 enjoyed a very short life as an independent company with just over four years between its emergence from BT's mobile communications businesses and its £17.7 billion takeover by Spanish group Telefonica.
Telefonica said at the time that O2 would retain its existing brand and would remain in the UK. O2 is now one of the UK's biggest mobile phone network providers with more than 18 million customers in the country boosted by an exclusive deal with iPhone in 2008.
Former FTSE 100 electricity group Powergen moved from British to German ownership in 2002 after a year long wait to get the go-ahead from regulators.
The £9.6 billion deal was held up by US officials pouring over the paperwork involving Powergen's Kentucky utility LG&E.
In December 2007 the Powergen name became defunct with all communications going under the E.ON banner.
E.ON had less success with electricity provider Scottish Power which flatly turned down its £10.7 billion approach in November 2005.
However, Scottish Power wasn't destined to stay independent for long. When Spanish energy firm Iberdrola came sniffing round, it jumped at the £11.6 billion takeover bid and created Europe's third-largest utility company in November 2006.
The UK's nuclear energy strategy was kick started in action with the £12.5 billion takeover of British Energy by French giant EDF in September 2008.
This gave EDF control of all British Energy's nuclear power stations with plans to build four more new nuclear reactors in the UK. These could generate electricity to meet more than 13% of the UK's projected energy demand by the early 2020s.
The UK government, which held a 36% stake in British Energy through its Nuclear Liabilities Fund, enjoyed a £4.4 billion windfall from the deal.
UK glass manufacturer Pilkington moved from British to Japanese hands after three months of talks in February 2006.
Japan's Nippon Glass finally paid £1.8 billion for the 80% of the 180-year-old glassmaker it did not already own after the UK group rejected its two initial bids.(my view)-These "English People" who has sold us down the river,they are scum and NOT english and never were in my eyes.....england is NOT england anymore,and i for one do not want to live in a country that i grew up in anymore...this country isn't my home,i'm sick and tired now,england is becoming to ETHNIC,to GHETTO,to BRONXY,to VIOLENT....all because the government let this fuckers in-in the name of progress...where's the progress?....their stealing OUR jobs,raping and father/mothering OUR men/women,stealing,B'and'E-ing,killing us...need i go on?
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1 comment:
I love Britain and I do hope things change very soon! I believe Corporatate America is taking over the world. I do not like it one bit!!! We need to fight for our freedoms! xxx
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