Philip Morris, Cadbury and Danone bid for Nabisco

Nabisco Holdings Corp., the biggest U.S. cookie and cracker maker, has received a bid of less than $55 a share from Philip Morris Cos., the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

A joint venture between Groupe Danone SA, the world’s largest dairy products and cookie maker, and Cadbury Schweppes Plc, the third-biggest soft-drinks maker, has made a bid of about $50 a share, the paper said. Philip Morris spokesman Nick Rolli declined to comment. A Nabisco Holdings spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Analysts and investors have said Philip Morris is the favourite to win Nabisco Holdings. Still, its reported $55-a-share offer, equal to about $14.6 billion, is only a 4 percent premium to Nabisco’s closing share price yesterday of 53. Both bids fall short of the higher range of analyst estimates for Nabisco Holdings of about $60 a share. “Philip Morris is in a position where it can gain some very significant synergies and has the financing capability that goes beyond what the others have,” said Goldman Sachs & Co. analyst Marc Cohen, who has Philip Morris shares on his “recommend list.”

Philip Morris, the New York-based maker of Marlboro cigarettes and owner of Kraft Foods, had $4.3 billion in cash on March 31 and generates as much as $2 billion a year in excess of its capital spending.

Financier Carl Icahn put Nabisco Holdings and its parent, Nabisco Group Holdings Corp., in play when he said in March that he wanted to increase his stake in Nabisco Group and pressed for its sale. Icahn yesterday submitted a $28-a-share offer for Nabisco Group, including $19 in cash and a $9 two-year note, the Wall Street Journal also reported, citing people familiar. The offer, financed by Icahn and the Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd., would value the 90.4 percent of Nabisco Group that the financier doesn’t already own at about $8.3 billion, the paper said. Reuters