Campbell Offers $860 Million for Arnotts : Buyout: The American food company’s bid for the Australian firm is attributed to the battle for the Asian market.

Campbell Soup Co. launched an $860-million bid Monday for Australian food company Arnotts Ltd., a move industry analysts attributed to the U.S. giant’s battle against European rivals for the Asian market.

The company, which already owns 33% of Arnotts’ 139.2 million common shares, offered $6.34 a share for the rest of the outstanding stock.

The offer brought no official response from Arnotts, whose shares were suspended at the start of trading Monday before the announcement. The stock closed Friday at $5.80 a share.

The move is the latest in a string of foreign takeover bids by U.S. food companies, including H. J. Heinz Co., Philip Morris Cos. and RJR Nabisco Holdings.

“Arnotts is the seventh-largest cookie company in the world,” Campbell’s Australian-born chief executive, David Johnson, said in a statement.

The company will become Campbell’s baked-goods brand in the Asia-Pacific region if the takeover goes through.

The U.S. food giant sells cookies in the United States under the Pepperidge Farm brand name and in Europe under the Delacre label.

But Australian industry analysts said Campbell has been slow to expand in Asia, where United Biscuits of Britain and France’s BSN are quickly grabbing up market share.

Campbell now sells Swanson-brand broths in Asia and says sales are growing at a rate of 30% a year. It hopes to start selling frozen dinners in Japanese cafeterias by as early as next March.

“We have an effective sales and distribution network in place to fully support the building of Arnotts’ business throughout Asia,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Arnotts owns some of the best-known food brands in Australia and commands 65% of the country’s $790-million cookie market.

Campbell, which first took a stake in Arnotts in 1985, said the company generated $38 million in earnings on $511 million in revenue last year.

The offer is conditional on approval from Australian regulators.

An industry analyst said Australia’s largest institutional investor, the Australian Mutual Provident Society, would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the takeover as it owned 10% of the target company.

Separately, Campbell said it will take a one-time charge to after-tax earnings of between $225 million and $300 million by fiscal 1994. The charge will come from an accounting change it is required to adopt.

Campbell stock closed down 75 cents at $41.125 a share on the New York Stock Exchange.