Cadbury, the newly formed holding company for some of the most famous chocolate brands in the world, began trading today at a level that will ensure the group stays within the FTSE 100.

The old Cadbury Schweppes group has been broken up and a new confectionary-only company was listed on the London Stock Exchange this morning. The Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which will own Cadbury Schweppes's soft drink brands, will list in New York next week.

For every 100 Cadbury Schweppes shares, investors have received 64 shares in Cadbury and 36 in Dr Pepper.

Cadbury shares were expected to begin trading at 640p but initially opened at 622p. They rose to 635p in early trading, which should give the group a market capitalistion of about £8 billion - enough to ensure that it stays in the FTSE 100 index of leading shares.

Shares in the Dr Pepper Snapple Group will not be tradeable until the company floats on May 7 but have been priced around $27.50 on the grey market, below the hoped-for $30 mark amid concerns of a slowdown in sales of soft drinks in the US.

Cadbury, which will own brands such as Dairy Milk, Trident chewing gum and Halls cough drops, has started trading with a comparitively high value compared to other food companies.

Analysts believe that following Mars' $23 billion acquisition of Wrigleys that emerged earlier this week, Cadbury's price is being supported by speculation that it could be become a bid target for a rival such as Kraft.

Todd Stitzer, chief executive at Cadbury, said: “The separation of beverages allows us to take the company back to the future The past few years have seen a transformation of the group’s performance and as a focused confectionery company we will be able to do better still."

The standalone Cadbury is expected to have revenues of about £5 billion and underlying profits of £500 million a year.

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