In a statement confirming its offer, Kraft said, “We look forward to working to reach agreement on the terms of a transaction.”
Mr. Lemann, 77, a Harvard-educated former Brazilian tennis champion, ranks 19th on
the Forbes list of world billionaires, with a fortune estimated at $29 billion.
On Friday, Kraft Heinz disclosed that it had made a $143 billion offer for Unilever, the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Lipton tea and Dove soap, a global combination
that would create one of the world’s largest food companies.
The ‘Warren Buffett of Brazil’ Behind the Offer for Unilever -
Jorge Paulo Lemann may be the richest man in Brazil
but he does not have the same pop culture status on American shores as the investor Warren E. Buffett.
Mr. Lemann’s team of Brazilian deal makers and Mr. Buffett joined forces to buy the ketchup king, H. J. Heinz, in 2013,
and they led Heinz’s merger with Kraft Foods in 2015.
Yet Mr. Lemann’s investment firm, 3G Capital, and Mr. Buffett’s conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, are the
architects of some of the biggest mergers of household names in American food and drink in recent memory.
3G Capital also put the American fast-food chain Burger King together with the Canadian coffee
and doughnut chain Tim Hortons — with financing from Berkshire Hathaway.