Great grandson of Cadbury founder slams board's acceptance of Kraft bid
Mr Cadbury said: “I would be very concerned seeing the precedent of Terry’s of York - they made assurances they would keep Terry’s of York going, they dropped the “of York” part and it’s now produced in Poland.
“There clearly must be concerns, but they have made assurances and I’m sure for a period they would hold good but for how long - that is the question.”
Mr Cadbury, who was previously deputy chairman of Morgan Grenfell and chairman at Close Brothers Corporate Finance, said he had no issue with overseas firms buying UK companies, but hit out at the policies of many of Cadbury’s shareholders which he said have focused purely on price rather than long-term management ability.
“I’m not in the same camp as those who say American companies should not be allowed to buy British companies.
“I’m a corporate financier so I have been involved in contested bids, but I believe they should be determined by the arguments put forward,” he said.
“If Kraft can convince people that they can run Cadbury better than Cadbury management can itself, then they should be given the chance.
“But they haven’t put up a very convincing case on that score.
“It’s ultimately about price and nothing else and the shareholders who have accepted seem to be taking a short-term view.”
Mr Cadbury agreed with Cadbury shareholder Legal & General, which has said it believes the new Cadbury offer fails to reflect the long-term value of the company.
“Cadbury has no need to lose its independence - it’s a very strong well-run company,” he said.
“It’s sad that it has basically been surrendered to short-term interest.
“Part of the policy of the whole bid has been to almost destabilise the register and create a large proportion of hedge fund and other arbitrageurs and people who aren’t investors in the company but are more traders in the shares.
“And increasingly the pension funds have taken a more short-term attitude with the result that the board probably felt it had no option to recommend the offer,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gordon Brown came under fire in the House of Commons for allowing a state-owned bank to fund Kraft’s bid for Cadbury.
Liberal Democrats claimed that banks were refusing to lend money to British firms which wanted to create jobs - but were happy to lend to lend to US food giant Kraft so that it could buy the Birmingham firm and potentially axe jobs.
And Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg pointed out that Royal Bank of Scotland, which is part of a consortium lending Kraft £7 billion, had been bailed out by British taxpayers.
There were rowdy scenes in the House of Commons as The Speaker, John Bercow, had to silence MPs after jeering reached fever pitch while the two party leaders were discussing the fate of the Birmingham chocolate-maker.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: “There is a simple principle at stake. There are tens of thousands of British companies crying out for that money to protect jobs and instead RBS wants to lend money to a multinational with a record for cutting jobs.”
