When Mrs May spoke about Kraft last year, she said takeovers should be judged on whether they benefited staff and customers, as well as investors, saying: “Transient shareholders, who are mostly companies investing other people’s money, are not the only people with an interest when firms are sold or close.” A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said: “This is clearly an important potential deal for a major company in the UK and its workforce. Unilever, the maker of Lipton tea and Dove soap, said the US$50 per share offer undervalued it and recommended its shareholders take no action, Kraft Heinz said it looked forward to “working to reach agreement on the terms of a transaction.”

Analysts saw this as a sign Kraft was open to a higher bid, although the Anglo-Dutch company said in a statement it saw no basis for further talks. The surprise £115bn bid by Kraft Heinz, which was rejected by Unilever, would have been the second-biggest takeover deal in history, behind the £147bn swoop on Germany’s Mannesmann by Vodafone in 2000. If the two companies were to merge, the deal would combine the company famous for Kraft macaroni and cheese and Heinz ketchup with the firm that owns the Dove brand of personal care products, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Lipton tea. Although Kraft is smaller than Unilever, with a market value of $106 billion as of Thursday, it is 51% owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, the private equity firm that also controls Anheuser-Busch InBev.
British-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever rejects a US$143 billion takeover from Kraft Heinz, saying the deal had no financial or strategic merit. Nevertheless, Kraft is still interested in finding agreement; it has until March 17 to make a final bid under UK takeover rules.