There will be an “announcement of importance” Friday afternoon concerning the Hershey Trust Co., according to the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, though no details have been released.
AG office spokesman Jeffrey A. Johnson today said he had nothing to add in advance of the announcement beyond what was previously released regarding a tentative deal between the agency and the charitable organization.
The trust’s 10-member panel, whose purview includes the Milton Hershey School Trust, The M.S. Hershey Foundation Trust and the Hershey Cemetery Trust, has been under scrutiny from the AG’s office over issues such as its members’ compensation, tenure and expenses.
The trust also has been in the news recently because it is The Hershey Co.’s main stockholder, controlling more than 80 percent of the company’s voting shares — which gives the body significant leverage over any possible sale of the Dauphin County candy company.
Three members of the trust’s board also sit on the board of Dauphin County-based Hershey Co., whose board on June 30 rejected a $23 billion purchase proposal from Illinois-based Mondelez International, a Kraft Foods spinoff whose brands include Oreo Cookies.
Trust spokesman Kent Jarrell today would say only “that we look forward to the announcement.”
