NEW YORK: US food giant Hillshire Brands is buying Pinnacle Foods, boosting its position in frozen foods, in a cash-and-stock $6.6bn deal including debt, the companies said yesterday.
Hillshire Brands, the Chicago-based maker of Jimmie Dean sausages, Ball Park hot dogs and Sara Lee frozen bakery goods, will buy Pinnacle in exchange for $18 per share and a half share of Hillshire stock.
The offer represents a bid of $36.02 per share, an 18 percent premium to Pinnacle’s closing price Friday.
The seller is private-equity firm Blackstone Group, which bought Pinnacle in 2007 for $2.2bn and reintroduced it on the market in an initial public offering in 2013.
AFP
