Pasta giant swallows £1bn baker

GERMAN bakery chain Kamps today yielded to a e1.83bn (£1.1bn) bid from Italian pasta giant Barilla in one of the biggest cross-border German hostile takeovers since Vodafone swallowed Mannesmann.

Kamps founder and chief executive Heiner Kamps agreed to a raised offer of e12.50 a share from Barilla, having rejected a bid last week of e12.

Loss-making Kamps floated in 1998 but got into trouble after a debt-fuelled spree of 19 acquisitions. Its shares have fallen 70% in the past two years.

Damien Thornton of Deutsche Bank, which advised Barilla, said the deal was the first major successful hostile bid since the new German takeover code came into force. This had the effect of making hostile bids easier.