Hershey has no plans to rain on Kraft's parade with rival bid

KRAFT'S takeover of Cadbury moved a step closer yesterday when the US chocolate maker Hershey announced it had no plans to launch a rival offer.

The last serious candidate to potentially gatecrash the near-12 billion takeover, Hershey said it remained interested in the situation and may launch a bid for its UK peer. Rivals have until 7am on Monday morning to table a bid for the Dairy Milk maker.

This week, Kraft tabled an improved 11.9bn cash-and-shares offer for Cadbury, which was enough to win the support of the company's board.

Many analysts had long doubted whether Hershey was serious about a bid because of the mountain of debt it needed to fund the deal. It would also have to pay a 118 million break fee to get Cadbury to switch its recommendation from Kraft.

Although Kraft's largest shareholder, Warren Buffett, expressed concern at the deal, the bid is expected to succeed. Shares in Cadbury closed down 0.5p at 832.5p.