London, Sep. 9 - U.S. food giant Kraft is coming under pressure to raise its multi-billion pound bid for Cadbury as the value of its offer falls due to the decline in its shares and the weaker dollar.
Kraft's cash and share offer was worth 10.2 billion pounds, or 745 pence a Cadbury share when launched on Monday, but had slipped to 717p late Wednesday, with analysts looking for a higher offer for a deal which makes clear strategic sense.
"Kraft is coming under pressure as its shares and the dollar weaken and it will clearly need to coming up with a better bid," said one food industry analyst on Wednesday.
The deal would create the world's biggest confectionery group, bringing Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate and Trident gum together with Kraft's portfolio of Milka chocolate, Oreo biscuits, Maxwell House coffee and Philadelphia cheese.
Most independent analysts at brokers not involved in the bid see Cadbury's shares worth between 850-900p, with Andrew Wood at Bernstein Research at the top of the range supported by the compelling nature of the potential deal.
"We consider that Kraft will need to increase its offer up to 9 pounds in order to stand a good chance of getting the deal done," Wood said.
Kraft's bid is worth 300p in cash and 0.2589 new Kraft shares priced in dollars for each Cadbury share, but Cadbury immediately rejected this approach.
When Kraft's Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld met Cadbury's Chairman Roger Carr to outline a deal on Aug 28, the cash and share offer was worth 755p a Cadbury share. But by the time Kraft went public with the offer on Sept 7 the value was 745p.
The sharp fall in Kraft shares on Sept 8 dragged the value down to around 716p late Tuesday. Kraft shares were up 0.9 percent at $26.68 but the weaker trend of the dollar keep the value of the deal largely unchanged at 717p by 4:00 p.m.
Cadbury shares were off 0.1 percent at 785p.
The dollar has weakened to above $1.65 to the pound from around $1.63 on Aug 28 with the U.S. currency suffering as investors moved to riskier assets like global stocks and higher-yielding currencies amid hopes for a recovery.