Mondelēz in talks to buy Cadbury biscuit licence from Burton's

Mondelēz, the owner of Cadbury, is in talks to buy back the licence for the British chocolatier’s biscuit business in a deal worth up to £200m.

The US confectionery giant previously known as Kraft, which bought Cadbury in 2010, is in talks with Burton’s Biscuits, the Birmingham-based business which has the right to make Cadbury Fingers and Cadbury Animals in perpetuity under a deal signed in 1986.

Mondelēz, which owns including Oreo, Ritz crackers and Belvita, had long wanted to gain control of Cadbury’s biscuit licence, according to an industry source.

The two groups previously held talks two years ago when Burton’s was looking to offload its Cadbury business to help smooth a deal to buy United Biscuits (UB), the owner of McVitie’s. Those talks collapsed when UB was bought by Turkey’s Yıldız for £2bn in 2014.

Talks between Mondelēz and Burton’s, which is majority owned by the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Fund, are understood to have restarted in the past few months.

Sky News reported that Mondelēz might be prepared to pay as much as £200m to secure the deal, although industry sources said Burton’s might only be worth half that amount.

However, Burton’s is unlikely to agree a deal with the US confectioner unless it can find a solution for the rest of its business – which includes Jammie Dodgers, Maryland cookies and Wagon Wheels.

Mondelēz and Burton’s said they did not comment on speculation.

A number of potential solutions have been looked at including buying Fox’s biscuits to build scale or selling out to UB owner Yıldız. Talks with Fox’s are thought to have stalled as owner 2 Sisters wants too high a price. It’s not clear if Yıldız, which has recently revealed an ambition to list the business the London Stock Exchange, has appetite for a deal. But the recent attempted coup in the group’s Turkish homeland may have spurred a desire to invest money offshore in a safer environment.