Food firms prepare bids

LONDON: America's third-biggest cereal company, Post Holdings, and the UK's Associated British Foods are among a group of four bidders vying for British cereal brand Weetabix, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.The 84-year-old business could fetch at least 1.5 billion pounds ($1.88 billion), based on a valuation of more than 11 times Weetabix' core earnings, the sources said.

Weetabix, owned by China's Bright Food, has also attracted interest from Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW), a joint venture between Nestle and General Mills , and Italian pasta maker Barilla, the sources said.

The parties are working to put the finishing touches to their offers which are due in next week, said the sources, who declined to be identified as the matter is private.

Weetabix, ABF, and Nestle declined to comment, while Bright Foods, Post, Barilla and General Mills were not immediately available.

Reuters exclusively reported on Dec. 20 that state-owned Bright Food had hired Goldman Sachs to run an auction for the well-known British brand which had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 130 million pounds in 2016.