Activist investor William Ackman has built a stake valued at around US$5.5bn in Oreo owner Mondelez International.
The stake was revealed in a statement released on Ackman's Pershing Square Capital management website. It amounts to 7.5% of share capital including options and forward contracts.
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According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, the activist believes Mondelez has to grow revenues faster and cut costs significantly or sell itself to a rival. The WSJ touted the recently merged food giant The Kraft Heinz Co. as a potential buyer.
Mondelez could not be reached for comment at time of press.
In the wake of its first-half results announced last week, the company said actions that had been taken to improve productivity were paying off.
Since the start of the year, the company has made a number or headcount reductions in a bid to improve efficiency. In January, it announced 200 job cuts at its Bournville site in the UK, followed by a further 160 positions at a site in Ireland. In May it said it would reduce its workforce at its Cadbury Australia plant by 80 and last week it revealed it would axe 600 jobs at its plant in Chicago after selecting the Salinas biscuit plant in Mexico for a US$160m investment.
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By GlobalDataMany of the cuts have been backed by investments into more up-to-date production techniques to improve operational efficiency.
For the first half, Mondelez's sales and profits were hit by charges and the impact of foreign exchange. For the period ended 30 June, net profit fell 6.7% to US$739m. Sales fell 9.7% to $15.4bn.
Mondelez, however, did raise its outlook for full year organic net revenue to 3% from 2% on "strong year-to-date performance".
