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* Rothschild’s Sachak bags Ferrero role

* Hershey bankers include Buffett’s chosen Trott

* Hershey and Ferrero considering joint Cadbury bid
(Adds detail in paragraph 15)
(For more Reuters DEALTALKS, click [DEALTALK/])

By Victoria Howley and Jessica Hall

LONDON/PHILADELPHIA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Akeel Sachak,
global head of the consumer team at Rothschild, may get a seat
at the table for this year’s sweetest deal after all.

Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and UBS
(UBSN.VX) secured the coveted roles defending Cadbury (CBRY.L)
against Kraft’s (KFT.N) $16.7 billion hostile offer, but the
Rothschild rainmaker is now advising Italy’s Ferrero as it
looks at the British chocolatier and could spark a bidding
war.

He’ll be in good company if U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co
(HSY.N), which is also considering a bid for Cadbury and has
held talks with Ferrero about a joint offer, steps into the
frame.

Hershey’s advisers include Warren Buffett’s chosen banker
Byron Trott and, for some proxy celebrity pizzazz, Jamie Grant,
the older brother of actor Hugh Grant.

“This is the situation everyone wants to be involved in. It
is the biggest bid in London and the consumer sector. It is
what everyone is talking about,” said a head of UK investment
banking at a top London firm.

Sachak, who joined Rothschild after leaving Oxford
University, brings insight to his appointment for the
secretive, family-owned Ferrero, the maker of Ferrero Rocher
chocolates and Nutella chocolate spread. Ferrero has yet to
make an acquisition in its 60-year history.

Sachak has worked for Cadbury on a number of acquisitions
and has advised other companies that have bought some of the
confectioner’s assets.

He helped Cadbury cement its position as one of the leading
players in the high margin global gum business, when it gobbled
up Turkey’s Intergum for $450 million in 2007.

That experience could be vital if Ferrero plans to take
Cadbury’s gum and candy division, a unit worth around $7.4
billion, according to media reports.

He was also an architect of Cadbury’s purchase of Orangina
for 700 million euros in 2001, which helped scale up the
company’s French and German soft drinks business after
Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) was blocked from buying the assets on
competition grounds a year earlier.

Sachak flipped sides five years later, advising private
equity firms Blackstone Group and Lion Capital on the
acquisition of Orangina for around $2.6 billion.

The pair sold the business a few months ago for $3.85
billion, again under advice from Sachak and his team.   Continued…