Cadbury Plc: Demerger of Americas Beverages Completed
Cadbury beverage shares in their entirety and by decreasing the nominal value of each Cadbury ordinary share from 500pence to 10pence, thereby establishing distributable reserves in Cadbury of approximately £6.6billion.
08/05/08 Cadbury plc announces the completion of the demerger of its Americas Beverages business to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc..
The Cadbury reduction of capital was confirmed by the High Court on 6 May 2008 and Cadbury has filed the court order at Companies House effecting the demerger. Pursuant to the reduction of capital, the share capital of Cadbury has been reduced by cancelling the Cadbury beverage shares in their entirety and by decreasing the nominal value of each Cadbury ordinary share from 500pence to 10pence, thereby establishing distributable reserves in Cadbury of approximately £6.6billion. The distributable reserves will be available at the discretion of the directors for the purpose of future distributions to shareowners.
Accordingly, shareowners in Cadbury Schweppes plc as at 6pm on 1 May 2008 will receive 12 DPSG shares for every 36 Cadbury beverage shares that they were allotted under the terms of the scheme of arrangement which became effective on 2 May 2008. 253,685,733 DPSG shares were today issued and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “DPS”. Trading in DPSG shares commences at 9.30am EST, terminating trading in “when issued” shares. Cadbury ordinary shares which were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange on 2 May 2008, will continue trading under the symbol “CBRY”.
The DPSG Information Statement, filed as part of the Form 10, was sent to shareowners and is available on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, www.sec.gov. Statements reflecting shareowners’ holdings in DPSG common stock will be sent to shareowners on or around 16 May 2008 along with their new Cadbury ordinary share certificates, proceeds from the sale of fractional entitlements and the Cadbury Schweppes plc 2007 final dividend of 10.5p per share
To facilitate the settlement of Cadbury Schweppes shares traded but not yet settled, a CREST depositary interest (CDI) has been established. For further information, shareowners should contact CREST at +44 845 9645 648.
Cadbury will issue its pre-close trading update on 19 June 2008 and announce the half year results on 30 July 2008.
