Acceptance of offer for 75% reached Thorntons says Ferrero

Ferrero's bid, which produces chocolate Nutella, to buy the slice of investors in British chocolate retailer Thorntons has achieved an acceptance of nearly 75 percent, said the Chief Executive of the Italian company in an interview published in la Repubblica on Friday.
The offer, a rare family group deal to expand in Europe's largest confectionery market, expires on the day July 16.
"Soon we can get (the Thorntons) purse as advertised," said the Chief Executive of Ferrero, Giovanni Ferrero, in the interview.
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"We are very happy with the chance to expand in the uk market that buying the Thorntons gives us".
The deal is the first since the death earlier this year of Patriarch Michele Ferrero, who was the richest man in Italy and largely shunned acquisitions while building the business from Kinder eggs until the chocolates Ferrero Rocher.
Giovanni Ferrero confirmed the changes in company strategy. "For us to develop we need to grow in size, we have to seek alliances, mergers. We need to get value out of Europe. "