And the Cadbury clarification duly arrives, up to a point.
To recap, Cadbury boss Todd Stitzer was reported this morning to have suggested, at a Merrill Lynch conference yesterday, that a 900p a share offer from Kraft (compared to the 718p on the table) would be considered a fair price. The comments were reported in a note from a Merrill Lynch salesman. Given we are in the middle of an offer period, you can just imagine the palpitations at the takeover panel over this apparent breach of the rules.
However, as suggested earlier, it now seems Stitzer's comments referred to other deals in the industry being done at similar levels. And apparently Merrill has altered the original note to reflect that.
Still, no transcript as yet of what Stitzer said exactly. And in reality, it does seem as though, for better or worse, Cadbury may well succumb to the US bid. As always, it just comes down to the price.
In the market Cadbury is 4.5p higher at 793p.
