We continue to believe that the opportunity for productivity improvement and margin expansion at Mondelez (MDLZ, Financial) is significant. In February, the company announced a 2018 operating margin target of 17% to 18%. This target reflects some of the steps the company has taken over the last several years to improve its supply chain, reduce portfolio complexity, and rationalize overhead while increasing advertising and promotion. While we believe that the business is capable of higher margins, if Mondelez were to only achieve management’s target, the business would be worth significantly more than its current public market valuation.
On April 27th, Mondelez reported first quarter 2016 results. Underlying organic growth continued its sequential acceleration, increasing about 3% in the quarter with volume up slightly. This was the best quarter for volume in two years, with growth in developed markets and in emerging markets excluding Brazil and Russia, both of which are in recession. Global growth for the snacks categories in which Mondelez participates remains healthy despite short-term demand weakness in some emerging economies. Management was confident about continued volume growth for the full year, citing the returns on their incremental brand investments and the closing of price gaps with competitors. Operating margins expanded by nearly 300 bps to just under 16% driven primarily by gross margin productivity including a substantial contribution from improvements in Mondelez’s manufacturing base.
On March 16th, we completed a block sale of 20 million shares of MDLZ. We now own a 5.7% stake in the company and are the third largest owner. We reduced our stake for portfolio management reasons, as it had become an outsized position, in light of its initially large size and its outperformance relative to other holdings. Mondelez remains our largest investment.
From Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio)'s first quarter shareholder letter.
