Cadbury Owner To Offload UK Chocolate Brand

The American food giant which bought Cadbury in a controversial deal in 2010 is soliciting interest in a takeover of Terry's, one of Britain's oldest chocolate brands.

Sky News has learnt that Mondelez International has hired bankers to explore a sale of number of confectionery products, including Terry's Chocolate Orange and Terry's All Gold.

Although the portfolio being earmarked for sale consists principally of brands in France, it also includes assets in Spain and the Netherlands, according to people familiar with the process.

The sale is being handled by Lazard, the investment bank which led Kraft's £11.5bn takeover of Cadbury, a deal which sparked a political outcry and changes to the code governing mergers and acquisitions in the UK.

It was unclear on Tuesday how much the Terry's range is worth, but Nasdaq-listed Mondelez is understood to have decided that the brand is not core to its business.

Previously part of Kraft Foods, Terry's moved to the ownership of Mondelez when its former parent split into two separately traded public companies in 2012.

UK production of the Terry's brand ended in 2005, when it shifted abroad following the closure of a factory in York.

In September, Mondelez opened a $30m manufacturing facility in the village of Skarbimierz in southeastern Poland,

The Chocolate Orange was launched in 1931, with Terry's All Gold first produced five years later.

Sales of the brand are understood to be minuscule in the context of Mondelez's broader confectionery portfolio, which includes Cadbury, Milka and Toblerone.

The US company has seen a mixed performance since the spin-off from Kraft three years ago, although in August it reported improved sales and margins for the second quarter of its financial year.

It has also attracted the attention of Bill Ackman, one of Wall Street's most formidable activist investors, who disclosed during the summer that he had built a 7.5% stake which at the time was valued at $5.5bn.

"Either the current team will get the business to its potential in reasonably rapid fashion, or it will be a target," Mr Ackman told CNBC in August.

Mondelez describes itself as a "global snacking powerhouse", operating in 165 countries and owning other international brands such as Oreo cookies and Trident chewing gum.

A Mondelez spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's plan to sell the Terry's brand.