Mondelez International, the company behind the Cadbury and Oreo brands, has pulled back from its pursuit of US confectionary maker Hershey after its latest takeover advances were rebuffed.

Mondelez first made overtures towards acquiring Hershey back in June with a $23bn offer but the takeover bid was unanimously rejected. Mondelez has made further unsuccessful offers in the interim with its latest offer of more than $24bn (€22bn) also rejected last week. It is believed Hershey is only willing to entertain a starting bid above the $26bn mark.

However, in a statement this week, Mondelez said there was “no actionable path forward” towards finding a suitable takeover agreement between both companies and was pulling back from a deal. Any tie-up between the two confectionary giants would have created by far the world’s largest sweet and chocolate company.