For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – January 6, 2010 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Kraft Foods (KFT), Alcon Inc. (ACL), Novartis AG (NVS), Cadbury Plc (CBY) and Ford Motor Co. (F).
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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:
Kraft Offers More Cash for Cadbury
Kraft Foods (KFT) has agreed to sell its North American pizza business to Nestle for $3.7 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to close in 2010.
The sale includes the DiGiorno, Tombstone and Jack’s brands in the U.S., the Delissio brand in Canada and the California Pizza Kitchen trademark license. It also includes two manufacturing facilities in Medford and Little Chute, Wisconsin and the right to take on the leases for the pizza depots and delivery trucks. The pizza business is estimated to have generated 2009 net revenues of $1.6 billion.
Nestle could fund this acquisition with the proceeds from the recent sale of its stake in eye-care company Alcon Inc. (ACL) to Swiss drug maker Novartis AG (NVS) for $28.1 billion in cash.
Kraft said that it would use the proceeds to increase its bid for Cadbury Plc (CBY) by 60 pence per share. The company will offer an increased proportion of cash in its tender offer for the UK confectioner. In addition, Kraft extended the acceptance period for Cadbury shareholders to tender their shares from Jan 5 to Feb 2.
Kraft had first proposed a takeover of Cadbury in September 2009 for £10.2 billion. This comprised 300 pence in cash and 0.2589 new Kraft Foods shares per Cadbury share. However, Cadbury rejected the offer. The new offer will increase the cash proportion to 360 pence per share. The overall size of the offer remains same with reduced proportion of shares.
In a separate announcement, Nestle clarified that it does not intend to make, or participate in, a formal offer for Cadbury.
Ford JV’s Stellar Chinese Sales
Changan Ford Mazda, a tie-up between Ford Motor Co. (F), Chongqing Changan Auto Co. and Mazda Motor, has posted a staggering 55% rise in sales to 316,139 vehicles in 2009, driven by the Chinese Government’s incentives to push auto sales. In December alone, the joint venture sold 27,680 cars, up 61% from the year-ago level.
General Motors’ joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. (SAIC) has also shown an impressive rise of 63.3% in sales to 727,620 vehicles. Further, the automaker’s joint venture with SAIC and Wuling became China’s first enterprise to exceed 1 million units in annual sales in 2009. Sales in the SAIC–GM–Wuling joint venture rose 63.9%to 1.06 million vehicles.
The Chinese auto industry has been developing incentives for car owners to shift to more environment-friendly and fuel-efficient cars. While the domestic automakers (especially small-car manufacturers) received most of the incentives, foreign automakers benefited from them as well.
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