Ketchup marriage in the USA – Buffett verkuppelt Heinz and Kraft – Reuters Germany

       

Bangalore / Zurich (Reuters) – In the food industry, a new giant emerges: engineered by the legendary investor Warren Buffett US is like the ketchup manufacturer Heinzund Kraft Foods unite the third-largest food and beverage company in North America.

       

Worldwide, the company will lie with sales of around 28 billion to $ fifth place, as the well-known as Philadelphia Cream Cheese Kraft Group announced on Wednesday. World leader is the Swiss giant Nestle with not counting $ 95 billion annual revenue.

       

Significantly involved in the deal is the 84-year-old Buffett. Its holding company Berkshire Hathaway and the Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital are the owners of Heinz. They had the company had bought in 2013 for $ 23.2 billion. Power was on the stock market before the merger announcement about $ 36 billion worth. The new group called force Heinz Co is reported to have eight brands that achieve each more than a billion dollars in annual sales.

       

“This transaction paves the way for international expansion,” Buffett told CNBC. Force had split in 2012 into two parts. The snack division and international business with well-known brands such as Milka and Jacobs were spun under the name Mondelez. Force even kept the smaller North American operations including with the US beverage and cheese business as well as the finished products business. Despite a number of established brands such as Velveeta cheese and Oscar Mayer meat products, force a hard time with it to boost sales growth.

        
       

TRENDS overslept

       

The Fusion is an indication of how difficult has become the food market in the US, said analyst Jon Cox of Wertpapierhandelshaus Kepler Cheuvreux. Some of the big producers had overslept and industry trends such as natural products and health food.

       

Say in the merged entity will have the power Heinz Co. Heinz shareholders: You will receive 51 percent of the shares. At the top of the group is to Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees stand. The force-shareholders will hold 49 percent. You will also receive a dividend of around ten billion dollars in cash from the Heinz-owners to remuneration in shares. The already heavily involved in the food industry financial investor 3G and Berkshire expect, among other things, a cost saving of around 1.5 billion by the end of 2017. The transaction is expected in the second half of the year.

       

The traded on the New York Nasdaq force shares surged by 32 percent high.

       
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