US-based private-label food maker Ralcorp Holdings Inc yesterday rejected rival ConAgra's latest sweetened bid of $94 a share and said that it will go ahead with its plan of splitting the company.

St Louis, Missouri-based Ralcorp rejected ConAgra's latest offer of $94 a share or $5.17 billion bid saying that the proposed takeover is not in the best interest for the company or its shareholders.

William Stiritz, chairman of Ralcorp said that the board ''has determined that the separation of Post Foods from Ralcorp will better allow each company to focus on strategies specific to their particular businesses, thereby unlocking additional significant value for our shareholders.''

''We are firmly committed to this plan and therefore, we have unanimously determined that we have nothing further to discuss,'' he added.

In March 2011, Omaha-based packaged foods company ConAgra Foods made an unsolicited offer to buy Ralcorp, and in May sweetened its bid to $86 a share, or $4.9 billion.

Rejecting the bid as too low, Ralcorp adopted defensive measures by announcing that it plans to spin off its Post Foods cereal business unit, the most recognisable cereal brands in the US, which also includes Honey Bunches of Oats, Grape-Nuts, Raisin Bran, Golden Crisp, Pebbles and Waffle Crisp, as a standalone company from its core private label business.

Ralcorp, which had acquired Post Foods from Kraft Foods in 2007 for around $1.65 billion, adopted the so called 'poison pill' defence, which would make an unwanted takeover extremely expensive.

Ralcorp, the third-largest maker of cereal in the ready-to-eat category, behind Kellogg and General Mills had early this month agreed to buy Sara Lee Corp's North American private brand refrigerated dough business for about $545 million to bolster its private-brand operation. (See: Ralcorp Holdings to buy Sara Lee's refrigerated dough business)

Ralcorp, with $4 billion in sales last year, makes post branded cereals, a variety of private-brand foods sold under the individual labels of various grocery, mass merchandise and drugstore retailers, and frozen bakery products sold to in-store bakeries, restaurants and other foodservice customers.

ConAgra, best known for its Chef Boyardee and Slim Jim said that the merger would create a $16 billion company by sales and become the third-largest packaged food maker in the US. But the deal would see it assume more than $2.5 billion in debt.