Warren will not agree

The Kraft Heinz bid for Unilever (LON:ULVR) is quite interesting.

When preparing for a bid like this it is wise to canvass major shareholders well in advance of parking one’s tanks on the oppo’s lawns. This might have shown that there was/is no discontent with ULVR’s management. On this basis the deal would purely have been financial engineering and quite possibly eclipsed by events on a one year view. This is hardly the basis for a bid still less acceptance of it.

Anyway, the matter was bound to end up being fielded at governmental level. At which point some longish memories would recall that in 2010 when Kraft bid for Cadbury’s Kraft declared that it would not sack workers at some factory here in the UK. Kraft was believed. However, within a few weeks of the completion of the takeover these very workers did get the bullet. In other words Kraft fibbed. This is hardly the basis for Kraft to receive sympathetic treatment at either British or Dutch governmental level.

I am sure that Warren will not agree but I think that there is a general overvaluation of the brands that these food companies offer. That noted, I suspect that ULVR is a buy at £35.


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Film review (1): Deborah Ross in The Spectator a week ago urged readers to see 20th Century Women. She even reflected upon her enjoyment of clitoral stimulation. That’s hers not Annette’s. But…

Film review (2): Last weekend Deborah urged her readers to run out and see Moonlight, whose central character is a male gay. He is presumably not available to assist Deborah with her sex life. But it has been pointed out to me that Moonlight is really very good and a mark of exceptional endeavour. This could persuade the Academy to hand the film the Best Picture award. I have bet accordingly and continue to oppose La La Land which, increasingly, seems to me to be a fairly indifferent flick.

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I have always thought that Corbyn is a lunatic. What I did not realise is that he is malignant. We now know this from reading of his respect for Chavez and then Maduro of Venezuela. Their behaviour has been so needlessly ineffectual and damaging to that country that it must be categorised as malignant. All the while Corbyn has been cheering them on from the sidelines.