Investors content to take Buffett's 20% Heinz premium

Warren Buffett says he will not pay a penny more than the $72.50 a share he is already offering for ketchup maker H J Heinz Co, and after an initial hesitation, most investors seem to be taking him at his word. Buffett made clear in a CNBC interview that the bid was his final offer. The deal offers shareholders a 19 per cent premium to what had been the stock’s all-time high and a 20 per cent premium to the shares’ last pre-deal close. But for much of the day on Thursday, shares traded above the offer price, suggesting that some people were holding out hope for a better figure. That hoped-for figure does not appear to be coming anytime soon, though. “I’ll take a 20 per cent premium in this environment any day. It's rich enough that you avoid someone coming in and offering a little more, but then again it's not necessarily in rarefied air," said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor in Cincinnati, which holds Heinz shares.