NEW YORK, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Mondelez International Inc., the snacks and sweets company, is exploring an acquisition of iconic U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co., in a potential deal that would create a food giant with combined sales of almost 50 billion U.S. dollars, reported Bloomberg News on Monday.

Chicago-based Mondelez has made a preliminary approach about a possible combination, the report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.

Shares in Hershey Co. rose as much as 19 percent on Monday for their biggest intraday gain in more than eight years after the Bloomberg report. The stock was trading up 12 percent at 10:57 a.m. in New York, giving the company a market value of 40 billion dollars. Mondelez fell 2 percent, giving it a market capitalization of roughly 83 billion dollars.

It's not the first time Mondelez has sought a deal for Hershey Co. In 2016, it walked away from discussions about a potential takeover after seeing a 23 billion dollars bid rejected by the chocolate maker.

Hershey Co. has a value of roughly 45 billion dollars including debt. That means a takeover of the Hershey, the Pennsylvania-based company, would top the value of the year's biggest deal -- snack maker Mars Inc.'s agreement to buy Kellanova for nearly 36 billion dollars including debt in August, noted the report. Enditem

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