DealZone

British bid target Cadbury will paint a glowing picture of its prospects this week as it makes an  impassioned plea for independence and endeavours to fend off Kraft’s advances.  Meanwhile, Italian chocolate-makerFerrero is still undecided on whether or not to bid for the embattled confectioner but has lined up a $4.5 billion loan from Mediobanca, The Times writes, citing Italian news reports over the weekend.

In another multi-billion M&A process, Dutch brewer Heineken will pay $5.4 billion in shares to acquire the beer business of Mexico’s FEMSA.

For other deals news from Reuters, click here.

And in other media:

Richard Branson has approached US buyout giant Blackstone about backing a bid for Northern Rock’s “good bank” being spun out of the state-owned lender, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Luxembourg-based investment firm Genii Capital, which recently agreed a deal to buy a stake in the Renault F1 team, will soon have initial financing in place to fund a purchase of Swedishcarmaker Saab, Dagens Industri reports. Reuters story here.