Kraft to give way to Romanian and Polish chocolate confectionary businesses of Cadbury

The European Commission cleared the proposed takeover of UK-based candy producer Cadbury by US food and beverage company Kraft Foods, upon the divestment of the Polish and Romanian chocolate confectionary businesses of Cadbury. “The Commission identified competition concerns within chocolate confectionery in Poland and Romania, where the combined market share of Kraft/Cadbury is particularly high and their brands are competing closely, in particular in the chocolate tablets markets”, EU’s executive arm said in a statement. Both Kraft and Cadbury are strong players in the chocolate confectionary business in the EU states. Kraft’s main chocolate brands are Milka, Côte d’Or and Toblerone, while Cadbury’s main brand is Dairy Milk. Kraft launched back in September an offer to buy Cadbury, which has yet to gain the latter’s shareholders approval. The offer values the UK chocolate maker at about 10 billion pounds (EUR11 billion).

Anda Dragan