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Kraft reaffirms guidance
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September 6, 2001: 12:49 p.m. ET
No. 1 U.S. food company sees good earnings-per-share numbers in 2001
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Kraft Foods Inc., whose brands include Nabisco cookies and Oscar Mayer hot dogs, reaffirmed its earnings guidance Thursday which caused its shares to rise.
Co-CEOs Betsey Holden and Roger Deromedi said they expect Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft (KFT: up $0.65 to $34.00, Research, Estimates) to post earnings per share of $1.18-to-$1.21 and cash EPS of $1.74-to-$1.77 for all of 2001. The forecasts assume Kraft owned Nabisco for all of 2000. Holden and Deromedi made the comments at an investor conference in Boston.
Shares for Kraft, the biggest U.S. food company, surged nearly 3 percent in early afternoon trading Thursday.
Through 2003, Kraft expects volume to grow at a compound annual rate of 3 percent-to-4 percent from its results in 2000, while net earnings are also seen jumping by a compound annual rate of 18 percent-to-22 percent.
Kraft, which acquired Nabisco for $14.9 billion last year, said the merger is on track and expects to achieve its savings target of $100 million in 2001 which will grow to about $600 million in ongoing annual savings by 2004.
In June, Kraft Foods went public, launching the year's biggest initial public offering at $8.68 billion. 
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