Takeover Called Unlikely : Trump Holds 0.4% Stake in Pillsbury

NEW YORK — New York investor-developer Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he owns 0.4% of Pillsbury Co., but analysts said problems in the company’s Burger King unit make it an unattractive takeover target.

Trump’s $15-million purchase--400,000 shares of common stock--is designed more to prop up the stock and interest prospective raiders, they said.

While a Trump spokeswoman said the investor was filing for government clearance to buy up to 25% of the Minneapolis food and restaurant company, she said he was not interested in taking over Pillsbury.

Trump “thinks the company has a lot of potential, but he doesn’t want to take it over,” said spokeswoman Norma Feder.

Burger King Unit Trailing

Pillsbury has about 86.2 million shares outstanding. At current market prices, the price tag on a buyout would be $3.4 billion, although a hostile tender offer would raise the bill considerably.

As for Trump’s sudden interest in the $6-billion conglomerate, “He likes to get involved in stocks and make it publicly known because that gets speculators in. Then he gets out,” said one analyst.

Pillsbury--which owns the Burger King, Steak & Ale, and Bennigan’s restaurant chains in addition to its food products--is thought by many analysts to be too much trouble to attract potential raiders.

The company’s Burger King chain now runs a distant No. 2 to McDonald’s Corp. in the fast-food business, and the company just hired a new chairman--General Foods chief Philip Smith--to end its woes.

“Burger King requires an awful lot of work,” said James Murren of C. J. Lawrence Morgan Grenfell.