Franklin resource fund manager Ann Gudefin whose company is the biggest investor in Cadbury said she targeted the U.K. confectioner as a takeover candidate before Kraft Food.’s unsolicited approach. “We have an idea” of a bid price for Cadbury that would be acceptable, Gudefin said, with regard to her $15.1 billion Mutual Global Discovery Fund which held 19.7 million Cadbury shares as of Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg data. “We’ll just wait until we have something on the table. If it comes and if we feel that it’s going to be appropriate, we will comment on it.” Franklin Resources has other funds that also own Cadbury stock.
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Kraft has a Nov. 9 deadline to make a formal bid for Cadbury, which has rejected its initial cash-and-stock approach, now worth 9.8 billion pounds ($16 billion). According to a filing yesterday, Franklin holds more than 111 million Cadbury shares across its funds, or 8.1 percent of the equity. Gudefin spoke in an interview at a Franklin Templeton Investments conference in Vienna Nov. 5, commenting on her fund, rather than speaking for all of Franklin. She declined to comment further on Kraft. Her fund beat 99 percent of its peers during the past five years, according to Bloomberg data. “Cadbury is a company that nobody liked a year ago,” when her fund bought “quite a lot” at around 525 pence and 550 pence per share, she said. Cadbury closed yesterday at 758 pence. Franklin funds kept lifting their stake after Kraft disclosed its bid on Sept. 7. Before then, filings showed Franklin held 5.6 percent of Cadbury. On Oct. 7, Franklin bought 4.4 million Cadbury shares for about 35 million pounds, or 7.95 pence per share, boosting its stake to 7.2 percent.
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