24 hours of Mayfair drama in which British icon Cadbury was sold
Todd Stitzer and his chairman Roger Carr can be forgiven their bloodshot eyes today.
It was two o'clock this morning when Carr walked out of the über-smart Mayfair offices of Kraft's adviser, Lazards, followed two hours later by Stitzer, the American chief executive who has fought four months of defence and attack from one of his mother country's biggest companies.
With the Ts all but crossed and the Is dotted, for them it was the end of a frenetic 24 hours of drama which ended with a British icon sold.
Kraft chief executive Irene Rosenfeld phoned Carr on Sunday night to ask him for a meeting. Carr said he didn't see the point unless it was to discuss a bid in the "mid-800s" — 850p in other words.
Eventually, they agreed to meet at 11am yesterday, in a conference room at the Lanesborough Hotel at Hyde Park Corner — Rosenfeld arriving from her suite at the Connaught in nearby Mayfair.
It was a different Rosenfeld to the one Cadbury had previously dealt with — extremely friendly and keen to find common ground. She offered 830p a share.
That was an offer worth listening to. Franklin, Cadbury's biggest shareholder with seven per cent of its shares, had privately indicated it would accept something in the 830p to 850p range. Carr told her he was still not happy with anything under 850p, but would put her offer to his board. Back at Cadbury's offices in Berkeley Square, he made a conference call to the other board members saying he should stick to his guns at 850p. They agreed.
A few hours later the gamble paid off. Back at the Lanesborough, Rosenfeld offered 840p, with Carr throwing in a 10p dividend. That sealed it.
Carr and Co headed off to the deep carpets of Lazards in Stratton Street where Kraft's advisers William Rucker and Peter Kiernan thrashed out the paperwork with Cadbury's advisory team: Goldman Sachs' Karen Cook and Morgan Stanley's Simon Robey and Nick Reid from UBS, a former Goldmanite.
The assembled teams of bankers and lawyers grafted through the night, calling in pizza. Finally, at 9.04am the deal was announced on the Stock Exchange wires.
