Credit worries delay Cadbury's sale of US drinks business

by ryan | July 27, 2007 at 09:32 am

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The buzz on the sale of Dr. Pepper has gone flat. This comes amongst general market volatility as the Dow Jones took its second biggest plunge of the year Thursday. Investors are jittery and part of the jitters comes from the fizz slowly leaking from the private debt market. This announcement from Cadbury only confirms these concerns and perhaps will perpetuate a second day of declines.

Turmoil in the debt markets has forced Cadbury Schweppes to delay the £7bn sale of its Dr Pepper drinks business in the US, although the confectionery firm insisted today that the move will still go ahead.

Interest in the business "remains strong" and the sale process is "ongoing" Cadbury said today. Two groups of private equity firms are thought to be in the running for the business, one led by TPG and the other a consortium including Blackstone, KKR and Lion Capital.