Every general knows that to win a battle you need the biggest guns on your side. The tactics used by Kraft in enlisting the help of a group of banks to finance its hostile pursuit of UK confectioner Cadbury shows this theory is equally as relevant on the financial battlefield.

Kraft has moved quickly since making its bid for Cadbury last month to put together a group of some of the biggest banks to finance its offer, effectively commandeering a big chunk of the firepower that any rival suitors could have used to finance a bid, or joint bid, of their own.