LONDON - Kraft Foods on Friday said it had 75.41 percent acceptances from Cadbury Plc shareholders by 1900 GMT on February 4 in its takeover of the British confectioner and will now move to delist Cadbury no earlier than March 8.

Kraft said in a statement that assuming it gets 90 percent acceptances from Cadbury shareholders it intends to move toward the compulsorily purchase of any outstanding shares of Cadbury. It added that its final offer remains open until further notice and urged all Cadbury shareholders to accept its takeover offer.

Kraft announced on February 2 that it had acceptances of almost 72 percent of Cadbury's stock to seal its 11.7 billion pounds ($18.4 billion) takeover of Cadbury and create the world's biggest confectionery group after a near five-month takeover battle.

(Reporting by David Jones; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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