Hershey refuses Mondelez takeover bid

American food company Mondelez has tabled a bid for chocolate manufacturer Hershey, but any offer has to be agreed to by the Hershey Trust. This time as well, the Trust has rejected the offer.

No deal

Hershey Trust may only have 8.4 % of the company’s shares, but still has 81 % of voting rights. This enabled it to block previous acquisition bids, and it did the same to the latest offer. Mondelez was willing to go all the way to get a deal, offering some twenty billion euros while promising to keep all jobs, move its main office to Hershey and even change the merger company’s name to Hershey – despite the fact that brand name “only” has a 19 billion euro value. Mondelez on the other hand is worth 62 billion euro.

However, the board of directors unanimously rejected the offer to create the largest company in the world. The desired company went as far as to say that the bid wasn’t even enough to form a basis for further discussions, much like it rejected Nestlé‘s bid earlier.