Kraft Heinz Merger Announcement: Live Blog

Wednesday morning, H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group Inc KRFT announced a definitive merger agreement to create a new entity called The Kraft Heinz Company.

The two are holding a press conference at 8:30am EDT to give further details. Below is a live blog of the events.

8:51am: Heinz: 60% of sales outside of N.A.; 25% of sales in emerging markets 8:47am: Kraft benefits from near-total penetration in N.A. market; Kraft Brands have a truly intl. reach 8:45am: Berkshire/3G has been key driving force behind Heinz and behind this transaction 8:44am: Refinance $9.5B of existing-secured Heinz high-yield debt with new invest. grade debt at trans. close; Targeting $2B of debt pay-down within 2 years 8:42am: Company will be co-headquartered in Pittsburgh and Chicago 8:41am: 'Confident we can achieve $1.5B in cost-savings' 8:39am: Maintain dividend per share, which should increase over time; transaction expected to close in the second half of 2015 8:38am: Cahill: We view this as a partnership. Kraft shareholder will receive 1 shares of Kraft/Heinz; $16.50/share upfront cash payment 8:36am: Combo will create 3rd-largest F&B co. in N.A. and 5th-largest in the world 8:34am: Behring touts status and positions of the Kraft brand and Heinz brand 8:33am: Alex Behring: From day one, it was clear John [Cahill] and I shared the same vision for this combined company 8:32am: Chris Jakubik says this is 'truly an exciting moment' 8:31am: Shares of Kraft up about 33 percent at $82.14

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