James Moore: Hershey is not going to ride to the rescue

Outlook It's hard to see Hershey as a credible white knight to save Cadbury from the dragon that is Kraft. Even squired by Ferrero, and with a good feel for its target given past flirtations, Hershey appears to lack the financial firepower to really spoil Cadbury's shareholders.

Raising equity is hard to do when you're controlled by a charity that can't sell and with a debt to equity ratio of more than three times your (much larger) rival. The numbers just don't really add up.

And anyway, Cadbury is no damsel in distress. It is highly debateable whether the company is really in need of the help of a third party to send the US food giant scurrying back into its cave. Facing a derisory offer, pitched at beneath the market price of the shares and under (apparently) little pressure from its shareholders to return to the table, Cadbury really ought to be able to accomplish this on its own.

But if the Hershey horse looks, well, just a little bit lame to be used for a joust with Kraft, it might still have value for stalking.

Kraft dismissed the notion of counterbidders when tabling its bid, claiming that the froth in Cadbury's share price was purely down to its intervention. "Tactics, dear boy, tactics," is what its bid team have been telling anyone who can bear to listen, a hint that there might be a bit more available, but not much, and that patience will win out in the end.

But with their admissions that they have been running the slide rule over Cadbury, Hershey and Ferrero have shown that those tactics might not be as clever as Kraft's richly remunerated advisers think. Their intervention may yet persuade others to enter the lists. Cadbury is a real sweetie, after all, with expensive tastes too.