Cadbury to Buy Hawaiian Punch Brand

Britain’s Cadbury Schweppes, maker of chocolates and beverages, agreed to buy Procter & Gamble Co.’s Hawaiian Punch brand for $203 million as it focuses its soft-drink business on the U.S. market. Cadbury said it will borrow dollars to pay for the top U.S. fruit-punch brand, which had sales of $133.3 million in the year through June 1998. The acquisition will boost earnings next year, Cadbury said. The purchase is the first in Cadbury’s search for acquisitions since the maker of Dairy Milk chocolate and Dr Pepper said last year it would sell most of its beverage brands outside the U.S. to Coca-Cola Co. for $1.85 billion. The Hawaiian Punch brand, popular mainly with children, will join canned refreshments such as Sunkist and Schweppes at Cadbury’s Dr Pepper/Seven-Up soft-drinks unit. Cadbury’s American depositary receipts fell $1.56 to close at $58.69, while Cincinnati-based P&G;’s shares fell $2.63 to $96.50, both on the New York Stock Exchange.