British sweets maker Cadbury has made what appeared to be a final rejection of an £11 billion takeover offer from US food giant Kraft, describing the takeover offer as “wholly inadequate" and “derisory".

In a statement accompanying Cadbury’s preliminary 2009 financial results, executives argued that Kraft’s offer valued Cadbury a only 12 times earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation, which they said was short of Kraft’s own stated benchmark of 14 times EBITDA for branded food companies. The multiple was also short of comparable deals in the food sector, they said.