Οργιάζουν οι φήμες για γάμο Matsushita με Sanyo
Οι Matsushita Electric Industrial και η Sanyo μπορεί να διέψευσαν ότι συνομιλούν ωστόσο οι φήμες δεν λένε να κοπάσουν. Αυτός ήταν και ο λόγος που οι τιμές των μετοχών τους σημείωσαν σημαντική άνοδο.
Οι φήμες λένε πως οι δύο ιαπωνικοί κολοσσοί συζητούν να ενοποιήσουν την παραγωγή τους. Υπενθυμίζεται πως μεταξύ άλλων η Matsushita είναι ιδιοκτήτρια της Panasonic.
Οι δύο εταιρείες τις διαψεύδουν όχι όμως και οι κύριοι μέτοχοι της Sanyo που είναι οι Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, Goldman Sachs και Daiwa Securities SMBC που έχουν γνωστοποιήσει τις προθέσεις να πουλήσουν τα ποσοστά τους και λέγεται ότι μεταξύ άλλων συζητούν και με τη Matsushita
REPORTER.GR
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Monday, April 28, 2008
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Mars Agrees to Buy Chewing Gum Maker Wrigley for $23 Billion
Mars Agrees to Buy Chewing Gum Maker Wrigley for $23 Billion
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mars Inc. agreed to purchase Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for $23 billion, with financing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., to combine the world's biggest maker of chewing gum with the producer of M&Ms chocolate.
Mars will pay $80 a share in cash for the maker of Doublemint gum, the companies said in a statement today on PR Newswire. That is 28 percent more than Wrigley's closing share price on April 25, when it last traded.
Uniting Mars, which also makes Snickers, and the 117-year- old Wrigley creates a company to compete with chocolate maker Hershey Co. and Cadbury Schweppes Plc, the world's largest candy maker. U.S. confectionary companies are exploring combinations as competition intensifies and milk and sugar prices rise. Gum has higher margins than chocolate and is growing faster, Mirabaud Securities analyst Julian Lakin said.
Gum is the ``fastest-growing sector,'' said Lakin, who is based in London and recommends investors ``hold'' Cadbury stock. ``The consumer finds it attractive because it's mostly calorie free. This could give Cadbury a tough time.''
Chicago-based Wrigley last closed at $62.45 on April 25. Hackettstown, New Jersey-based Mars is closely held.
Sales at Wrigley may rise 9 percent this year, the slowest pace since 2000, according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Competition from London-based Cadbury's Trident and Dentyne gums in the U.S. has eroded its market share. Cadbury, the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, bought Pfizer Inc.'s Adams candy unit for $4.2 billion in 2003 to become the world's second-largest maker of chewing gum.
Market Share
Since November 2006, Mars has been winning market share in the U.S., while Hershey's has dropped, Alexia Howard, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst who recommends investors sell Hershey, wrote in an April 11 note to investors.
In 2006, Wrigley named former Nike Inc. Chief Executive Officer William Perez president and CEO, the first person outside the Wrigley family to head the company.
William Wrigley Jr. began selling soap in Chicago in 1891 and eventually turned to chewing gum, an item he was giving away for free with each sale, according to Wrigley's corporate Web site. He introduced Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint in 1893, two brands the company still sells today.
Mars, founded in 1911 by Frank C. Mars, is still family owned. The company has about $25 billion in annual sales, 45 percent from chocolates and other snacks. Its biggest division is pet food, which sells Whiskas cat food and Pedigree for dogs, and accounts for 46 percent of sales, according to the company's Web site.
BLOOMBERG
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mars Inc. agreed to purchase Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for $23 billion, with financing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., to combine the world's biggest maker of chewing gum with the producer of M&Ms chocolate.
Mars will pay $80 a share in cash for the maker of Doublemint gum, the companies said in a statement today on PR Newswire. That is 28 percent more than Wrigley's closing share price on April 25, when it last traded.
Uniting Mars, which also makes Snickers, and the 117-year- old Wrigley creates a company to compete with chocolate maker Hershey Co. and Cadbury Schweppes Plc, the world's largest candy maker. U.S. confectionary companies are exploring combinations as competition intensifies and milk and sugar prices rise. Gum has higher margins than chocolate and is growing faster, Mirabaud Securities analyst Julian Lakin said.
Gum is the ``fastest-growing sector,'' said Lakin, who is based in London and recommends investors ``hold'' Cadbury stock. ``The consumer finds it attractive because it's mostly calorie free. This could give Cadbury a tough time.''
Chicago-based Wrigley last closed at $62.45 on April 25. Hackettstown, New Jersey-based Mars is closely held.
Sales at Wrigley may rise 9 percent this year, the slowest pace since 2000, according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Competition from London-based Cadbury's Trident and Dentyne gums in the U.S. has eroded its market share. Cadbury, the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate, bought Pfizer Inc.'s Adams candy unit for $4.2 billion in 2003 to become the world's second-largest maker of chewing gum.
Market Share
Since November 2006, Mars has been winning market share in the U.S., while Hershey's has dropped, Alexia Howard, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst who recommends investors sell Hershey, wrote in an April 11 note to investors.
In 2006, Wrigley named former Nike Inc. Chief Executive Officer William Perez president and CEO, the first person outside the Wrigley family to head the company.
William Wrigley Jr. began selling soap in Chicago in 1891 and eventually turned to chewing gum, an item he was giving away for free with each sale, according to Wrigley's corporate Web site. He introduced Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint in 1893, two brands the company still sells today.
Mars, founded in 1911 by Frank C. Mars, is still family owned. The company has about $25 billion in annual sales, 45 percent from chocolates and other snacks. Its biggest division is pet food, which sells Whiskas cat food and Pedigree for dogs, and accounts for 46 percent of sales, according to the company's Web site.
BLOOMBERG
Deutsche Bank May Report First Loss in Five Years on Markdowns
Deutsche Bank May Report First Loss in Five Years on Markdowns
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, may report its first quarterly loss in five years after writing down the value of loans for leveraged buyouts and asset- backed securities by 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion).
The bank will probably post a first-quarter net loss of 174 million euros tomorrow, after a profit of 2.12 billion euros a year earlier, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Deutsche Bank sidestepped the worst of the subprime contagion because of early bets against the U.S. housing market. UBS AG, the largest Swiss bank, recorded almost 38 billion Swiss francs ($36.7 billion) of markdowns since July, while Credit Suisse Group last week posted its first loss since 2003 on 5.3 billion francs of writedowns in the first quarter.
``Deutsche Bank appears to have done better than its Swiss counterparts,'' said Thomas Koerfgen, a Frankfurt-based fund manager at SEB Asset Management, which oversees more than $15 billion, including Deutsche Bank shares. ``Good risk management and the push to expand retail banking and asset management are paying off.''
Deutsche Bank fell 12 percent in the last six months in Frankfurt trading, compared with a 19 percent drop in the 59- company Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index.
The Frankfurt-based bank, run by Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, said April 1 it would book about 2.5 billion euros in markdowns in the quarter, bringing total losses to 4.8 billion euros since the start of last year.
Writedowns, Capital Raisings
The world's biggest banks and securities firms have reported credit losses and writedowns of about $308 billion linked to the U.S. subprime meltdown, data compiled by Bloomberg show. UBS, Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are among banks that sought about $212 billion from investors to replenish capital.
``Even though we expect a weak quarter, Deutsche Bank should be able to get through the credit crisis relatively well, especially without the need for a capital increase,'' Andreas Weese, a Munich-based analyst at UniCredit SpA, who recommends investors buy the stock, said in a note.
UBS is seeking 15 billion francs from investors to repair its balance sheet after already receiving 13 billion francs last month from Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and an unidentified Middle Eastern investor. The Zurich-based bank said last week that it will announce job cuts ``across the board'' at its securities unit in May and no longer plans to ``offer everything to everyone in investment banking.''
Leveraged Loans
Deutsche Bank's investment bank, run by Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs, accounted for almost half of 2007 earnings and may report a pretax loss of 903 million euros for the first quarter, according to the analyst survey.
The bulk of first-quarter markdowns were likely made on 36.2 billion euros of leveraged loans held at the end of 2007, said Derek Chambers, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Research in London. The loans accounted for the biggest chunk of unsold LBO debt worldwide, according to a BNP Paribas SA report this month.
Banks are taking advantage of an increase in the price of LBO loans this month to reduce the $95 billion overhang of debt on their books. Deutsche Bank is offering discounts of as much as 9 percent to sell loans financing the leveraged buyout of U.K. pharmacy chain Alliance Boots Ltd., three investors contacted by the bank to buy the debt said on April 25.
Consumer Banking
Ackermann, who has run the bank since 2002, expanded what he calls the ``stable businesses'' of consumer banking and asset management by purchasing German lenders Norisbank and Berliner Bank and Britain's Tilney Investment Management Ltd. Deutsche Bank has expressed interest in Deutsche Postbank AG, the country's biggest consumer lender by clients, and Citigroup's German consumer banking operations, if they were put up for sale.
``It is pursuing a sensible policy of diversification, but it remains highly exposed to developments in fixed-income trading,'' said Chambers.
Consumer banking profit probably declined 4.1 percent to 281 million euros in the quarter, while asset and wealth management earnings may have gained 11 percent to 208 million euros, according to the survey of analysts.
The German bank said last month its full-year forecast for pretax profit of 8.4 billion euros, which excludes one-time effects, is at risk, citing a slowdown in investment banking revenue and economic growth.
Deutsche Bank gets about half its profit from fixed-income, including asset-backed and other structured securities, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates. Many of these business areas have dried up because of the credit crunch.
BLOOMBERG
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, may report its first quarterly loss in five years after writing down the value of loans for leveraged buyouts and asset- backed securities by 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion).
The bank will probably post a first-quarter net loss of 174 million euros tomorrow, after a profit of 2.12 billion euros a year earlier, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Deutsche Bank sidestepped the worst of the subprime contagion because of early bets against the U.S. housing market. UBS AG, the largest Swiss bank, recorded almost 38 billion Swiss francs ($36.7 billion) of markdowns since July, while Credit Suisse Group last week posted its first loss since 2003 on 5.3 billion francs of writedowns in the first quarter.
``Deutsche Bank appears to have done better than its Swiss counterparts,'' said Thomas Koerfgen, a Frankfurt-based fund manager at SEB Asset Management, which oversees more than $15 billion, including Deutsche Bank shares. ``Good risk management and the push to expand retail banking and asset management are paying off.''
Deutsche Bank fell 12 percent in the last six months in Frankfurt trading, compared with a 19 percent drop in the 59- company Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index.
The Frankfurt-based bank, run by Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, said April 1 it would book about 2.5 billion euros in markdowns in the quarter, bringing total losses to 4.8 billion euros since the start of last year.
Writedowns, Capital Raisings
The world's biggest banks and securities firms have reported credit losses and writedowns of about $308 billion linked to the U.S. subprime meltdown, data compiled by Bloomberg show. UBS, Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are among banks that sought about $212 billion from investors to replenish capital.
``Even though we expect a weak quarter, Deutsche Bank should be able to get through the credit crisis relatively well, especially without the need for a capital increase,'' Andreas Weese, a Munich-based analyst at UniCredit SpA, who recommends investors buy the stock, said in a note.
UBS is seeking 15 billion francs from investors to repair its balance sheet after already receiving 13 billion francs last month from Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and an unidentified Middle Eastern investor. The Zurich-based bank said last week that it will announce job cuts ``across the board'' at its securities unit in May and no longer plans to ``offer everything to everyone in investment banking.''
Leveraged Loans
Deutsche Bank's investment bank, run by Anshu Jain and Michael Cohrs, accounted for almost half of 2007 earnings and may report a pretax loss of 903 million euros for the first quarter, according to the analyst survey.
The bulk of first-quarter markdowns were likely made on 36.2 billion euros of leveraged loans held at the end of 2007, said Derek Chambers, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Research in London. The loans accounted for the biggest chunk of unsold LBO debt worldwide, according to a BNP Paribas SA report this month.
Banks are taking advantage of an increase in the price of LBO loans this month to reduce the $95 billion overhang of debt on their books. Deutsche Bank is offering discounts of as much as 9 percent to sell loans financing the leveraged buyout of U.K. pharmacy chain Alliance Boots Ltd., three investors contacted by the bank to buy the debt said on April 25.
Consumer Banking
Ackermann, who has run the bank since 2002, expanded what he calls the ``stable businesses'' of consumer banking and asset management by purchasing German lenders Norisbank and Berliner Bank and Britain's Tilney Investment Management Ltd. Deutsche Bank has expressed interest in Deutsche Postbank AG, the country's biggest consumer lender by clients, and Citigroup's German consumer banking operations, if they were put up for sale.
``It is pursuing a sensible policy of diversification, but it remains highly exposed to developments in fixed-income trading,'' said Chambers.
Consumer banking profit probably declined 4.1 percent to 281 million euros in the quarter, while asset and wealth management earnings may have gained 11 percent to 208 million euros, according to the survey of analysts.
The German bank said last month its full-year forecast for pretax profit of 8.4 billion euros, which excludes one-time effects, is at risk, citing a slowdown in investment banking revenue and economic growth.
Deutsche Bank gets about half its profit from fixed-income, including asset-backed and other structured securities, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates. Many of these business areas have dried up because of the credit crunch.
BLOOMBERG
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HANG SENG INDEX 25,666.29 149.51 0.59%
CSI 300 INDEX 3,729.15 -73.92 -1.94%
HANG SENG INDEX 25,666.29 149.51 0.59%
CSI 300 INDEX 3,729.15 -73.92 -1.94%
Oil Rises to Record on U.K. Pipeline Shutdown, Nigeria Attack
Oil Rises to Record on U.K. Pipeline Shutdown, Nigeria Attack
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record, trading near $120 a barrel in New York, after BP Plc shut a North Sea pipeline and gunmen attacked police guarding Nigeria's largest oil and gas terminal.
BP closed the Forties Pipeline System, carrying 40 percent of the U.K.'s oil production, after a strike at the Grangemouth refinery cut power supplies. Five police were killed in yesterday's attack in the Niger Delta, where output has dropped by 50 percent since April 25, adding to concern about supplies before the Northern Hemisphere summer driving season.
``The bulls are still in control so it's no surprise to be near $120 on these supply concerns,'' said Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore. ``Nigeria is back on top of traders' minds. The disruptions are real and this is high-quality crude needed by the U.S. refineries for gasoline production in the summer.''
Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as $1.41, or 1.2 percent, to $119.93 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since the futures began trading in 1983. It was at $119.44 at 3:05 p.m. in Singapore. Prices have surged 82 percent in the past year.
The contract jumped 2.1 percent to $118.52 a barrel April 25 when the refinery strike and pipeline closure were announced.
New York oil futures are 82 percent higher than a year ago. Investors have purchased contracts as a hedge against the dollar as it has fallen to a record low against the euro and as an alternative to flagging equities markets. The benchmark U.S. S&P 500 Index has dropped 9.8 percent since the start of the year.
`Substantial Production'
``The production affected at the moment is pretty substantial,'' said David Moore, the commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney. ``It all counts nowadays. The price would suggest the market is very tight.''
Oil for delivery in June is selling at a premium of $1.04 a barrel to July supplies. The price difference becomes more pronounced for later month contracts as June's premium to the December future has jumped to $4.80 a barrel.
Brent crude for June settlement rose as much as $1.16, or 1 percent, to $117.50 a barrel London's ICE Futures Europe exchange and was trading at $117.36 a barrel at 3:05 p.m. in Singapore. It reached a record $117.56 on April 25.
Refinery production at Grangemouth will resume on April 29 at 7 a.m. local time. Units crucial to restart flows on the Forties pipeline will have priority, Richard Longden, spokesman for operator Ineos Group Holdings Plc, said yesterday.
Low-Sulfur Grades
Oil grades from the North Sea and Nigeria, Africa's biggest producer, are low in sulfur and favored by refiners. Nigeria is losing about 50 percent of its output after staff at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s operations went on strike April 24 and militants attacked a Royal Dutch Shell Plc pipeline later the same day.
``Nigerian crude is quite good quality and the U.S. probably imports about 10 percent to 15 percent from them,'' said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager at Astmax Ltd. in Tokyo. ``It's affecting the supply and the quality'' for the refiners.
Nigeria pumped 1.96 million barrels a day in March, according to Bloomberg estimates. Recent attacks on Shell-run pipelines, including the latest one, are cutting oil flows by about 140,000 barrels a day, the country's oil minister H. Odein Ajumogobia said April 25. The Exxon Mobil strike is halting about 765,000 barrels a day, according to union estimates.
The loss of production in the North Sea and Nigeria follows reports of output declines in Russia and Mexico, two of the biggest suppliers that aren't members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
`New Supply Problems'
``On top of everything in the U.K. and everything in Nigeria, it seems like everyday we're having new supply problems,'' Jonathan Kornafel, a director for Asia at Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``It's political, it's supply. Everyday there's something pushing prices higher.''
Hedge fund managers and other large speculators increased bets on rising oil prices for a third time in the week ended April 22, according to data from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 70,562 contracts, a 6 percent gain, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. This is the highest since the week ended March 21.
Oil prices are likely to fall to ``more realistic levels'' once the Forties pipeline has re-opened, said Ben Barber, a broker at Bell Commodities Ltd. in Melbourne. U.S. stockpiles and the dollar are rising and there is a risk prices will decline this week if the Federal Reserve signals an end to recent interest rate cuts.
``Oil is quite susceptible,'' he said.
The Federal Reserve will probably cut its target lending rate by a quarter-point to 2 percent on April 30, according to futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, the smallest reduction in four months.
BLOOMBERG
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record, trading near $120 a barrel in New York, after BP Plc shut a North Sea pipeline and gunmen attacked police guarding Nigeria's largest oil and gas terminal.
BP closed the Forties Pipeline System, carrying 40 percent of the U.K.'s oil production, after a strike at the Grangemouth refinery cut power supplies. Five police were killed in yesterday's attack in the Niger Delta, where output has dropped by 50 percent since April 25, adding to concern about supplies before the Northern Hemisphere summer driving season.
``The bulls are still in control so it's no surprise to be near $120 on these supply concerns,'' said Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore. ``Nigeria is back on top of traders' minds. The disruptions are real and this is high-quality crude needed by the U.S. refineries for gasoline production in the summer.''
Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as $1.41, or 1.2 percent, to $119.93 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since the futures began trading in 1983. It was at $119.44 at 3:05 p.m. in Singapore. Prices have surged 82 percent in the past year.
The contract jumped 2.1 percent to $118.52 a barrel April 25 when the refinery strike and pipeline closure were announced.
New York oil futures are 82 percent higher than a year ago. Investors have purchased contracts as a hedge against the dollar as it has fallen to a record low against the euro and as an alternative to flagging equities markets. The benchmark U.S. S&P 500 Index has dropped 9.8 percent since the start of the year.
`Substantial Production'
``The production affected at the moment is pretty substantial,'' said David Moore, the commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney. ``It all counts nowadays. The price would suggest the market is very tight.''
Oil for delivery in June is selling at a premium of $1.04 a barrel to July supplies. The price difference becomes more pronounced for later month contracts as June's premium to the December future has jumped to $4.80 a barrel.
Brent crude for June settlement rose as much as $1.16, or 1 percent, to $117.50 a barrel London's ICE Futures Europe exchange and was trading at $117.36 a barrel at 3:05 p.m. in Singapore. It reached a record $117.56 on April 25.
Refinery production at Grangemouth will resume on April 29 at 7 a.m. local time. Units crucial to restart flows on the Forties pipeline will have priority, Richard Longden, spokesman for operator Ineos Group Holdings Plc, said yesterday.
Low-Sulfur Grades
Oil grades from the North Sea and Nigeria, Africa's biggest producer, are low in sulfur and favored by refiners. Nigeria is losing about 50 percent of its output after staff at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s operations went on strike April 24 and militants attacked a Royal Dutch Shell Plc pipeline later the same day.
``Nigerian crude is quite good quality and the U.S. probably imports about 10 percent to 15 percent from them,'' said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager at Astmax Ltd. in Tokyo. ``It's affecting the supply and the quality'' for the refiners.
Nigeria pumped 1.96 million barrels a day in March, according to Bloomberg estimates. Recent attacks on Shell-run pipelines, including the latest one, are cutting oil flows by about 140,000 barrels a day, the country's oil minister H. Odein Ajumogobia said April 25. The Exxon Mobil strike is halting about 765,000 barrels a day, according to union estimates.
The loss of production in the North Sea and Nigeria follows reports of output declines in Russia and Mexico, two of the biggest suppliers that aren't members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
`New Supply Problems'
``On top of everything in the U.K. and everything in Nigeria, it seems like everyday we're having new supply problems,'' Jonathan Kornafel, a director for Asia at Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``It's political, it's supply. Everyday there's something pushing prices higher.''
Hedge fund managers and other large speculators increased bets on rising oil prices for a third time in the week ended April 22, according to data from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 70,562 contracts, a 6 percent gain, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. This is the highest since the week ended March 21.
Oil prices are likely to fall to ``more realistic levels'' once the Forties pipeline has re-opened, said Ben Barber, a broker at Bell Commodities Ltd. in Melbourne. U.S. stockpiles and the dollar are rising and there is a risk prices will decline this week if the Federal Reserve signals an end to recent interest rate cuts.
``Oil is quite susceptible,'' he said.
The Federal Reserve will probably cut its target lending rate by a quarter-point to 2 percent on April 30, according to futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, the smallest reduction in four months.
BLOOMBERG
Buffett's Berkshire, Mars to Buy Wrigley, WSJ Says
Buffett's Berkshire, Mars to Buy Wrigley, WSJ Says
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mars Inc. and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may be close to buying Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for more than $22 billion in a deal that would combine two of the biggest U.S. candy makers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The purchase of the maker of Doublemint gum, which had a market value last week of $17.1 billion, may be announced as early as today, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Uniting closely held Mars, the Hackettstown, New Jersey- based maker of Snickers and M&Ms, and the 117-year-old Wrigley would create a company that would compete with chocolate maker Hershey Co. and Cadbury Schweppes Plc, the world's largest candy maker. U.S. candy companies are exploring combinations as competition intensifies and milk and sugar prices rise.
Wrigley's sales may grow 9 percent this year, the slowest pace since 2000, according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Competition from London-based Cadbury's Trident and Dentyne gums in the U.S. has eroded its market share.
In 2006, Chicago-based Wrigley named former Nike Inc. Chief Executive Officer William Perez president and CEO, the first person outside the Wrigley family to head the world's biggest chewing-gum maker.
The trust that controls Hershey discussed ways to merge the chocolate company with Cadbury in a way that wouldn't decrease the trust's ownership, the Journal reported last year.
Chocolate Market Share
Since November 2006, Mars's share of the U.S. chocolate market has increased 1.3 percentage points, while Hershey's market share has fallen 2.3 percent points, Alexia Howard, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst who recommends investors sell Hershey, wrote in an April 11 note to investors.
Voice and e-mailed messages sent by Bloomberg News to Berkshire spokeswoman Jackie Wilson and Mars spokeswoman Alice Nathanson weren't immediately returned, nor was a call to Wrigley spokesman Christopher Perille.
``We do not comment on market speculation,'' Jennifer Wu, corporate affairs director for Wrigley in Asia, said in a phone interview today.
The terms of the purchase weren't immediately clear, the Journal reported. Berkshire Hathaway may have been prepared to provide financing and become a stakeholder in Wrigley, it said.
See's Candies
Berkshire Hathaway also owns See's Candies, an 87-year-old confectioner in San Francisco.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has about $40 billion to spend on acquisitions. The 77-year-old Buffett has built Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire over four decades from a failing textile maker into a $195 billion holding company with businesses ranging from candy making to insurance. Berkshire has stakes in companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Buffett ranks as the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine.
William Wrigley Jr. began selling soap in Chicago in 1891 and eventually turned to chewing gum, an item he was giving away for free with each sale, according to Wrigley's corporate Web site. He introduced Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint in 1893, two brands the company still sells today.
Mars, founded in 1911 by Frank C. Mars, is still family owned. The company has about $25 billion in annual sales, 45 percent from chocolates and other snacks. Its biggest division is pet food, which sells Whiskas cat food and Pedigree for dogs, and accounts for 46 percent of sales, according to the company's Web site.
BLOOMBERG
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mars Inc. and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may be close to buying Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for more than $22 billion in a deal that would combine two of the biggest U.S. candy makers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The purchase of the maker of Doublemint gum, which had a market value last week of $17.1 billion, may be announced as early as today, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Uniting closely held Mars, the Hackettstown, New Jersey- based maker of Snickers and M&Ms, and the 117-year-old Wrigley would create a company that would compete with chocolate maker Hershey Co. and Cadbury Schweppes Plc, the world's largest candy maker. U.S. candy companies are exploring combinations as competition intensifies and milk and sugar prices rise.
Wrigley's sales may grow 9 percent this year, the slowest pace since 2000, according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Competition from London-based Cadbury's Trident and Dentyne gums in the U.S. has eroded its market share.
In 2006, Chicago-based Wrigley named former Nike Inc. Chief Executive Officer William Perez president and CEO, the first person outside the Wrigley family to head the world's biggest chewing-gum maker.
The trust that controls Hershey discussed ways to merge the chocolate company with Cadbury in a way that wouldn't decrease the trust's ownership, the Journal reported last year.
Chocolate Market Share
Since November 2006, Mars's share of the U.S. chocolate market has increased 1.3 percentage points, while Hershey's market share has fallen 2.3 percent points, Alexia Howard, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst who recommends investors sell Hershey, wrote in an April 11 note to investors.
Voice and e-mailed messages sent by Bloomberg News to Berkshire spokeswoman Jackie Wilson and Mars spokeswoman Alice Nathanson weren't immediately returned, nor was a call to Wrigley spokesman Christopher Perille.
``We do not comment on market speculation,'' Jennifer Wu, corporate affairs director for Wrigley in Asia, said in a phone interview today.
The terms of the purchase weren't immediately clear, the Journal reported. Berkshire Hathaway may have been prepared to provide financing and become a stakeholder in Wrigley, it said.
See's Candies
Berkshire Hathaway also owns See's Candies, an 87-year-old confectioner in San Francisco.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has about $40 billion to spend on acquisitions. The 77-year-old Buffett has built Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire over four decades from a failing textile maker into a $195 billion holding company with businesses ranging from candy making to insurance. Berkshire has stakes in companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Buffett ranks as the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine.
William Wrigley Jr. began selling soap in Chicago in 1891 and eventually turned to chewing gum, an item he was giving away for free with each sale, according to Wrigley's corporate Web site. He introduced Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint in 1893, two brands the company still sells today.
Mars, founded in 1911 by Frank C. Mars, is still family owned. The company has about $25 billion in annual sales, 45 percent from chocolates and other snacks. Its biggest division is pet food, which sells Whiskas cat food and Pedigree for dogs, and accounts for 46 percent of sales, according to the company's Web site.
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