NEW YORK — Post Foods, Grupo Bimbo, Flowers Foods and Aryzta AG are among several suitors who have made nonbinding bids to acquire Hostess Brands for approximately $2 billion, according to an article in the New York Post. The Post also indicated that several private equity firms are considering a run at the Kansas City-based baker.
The Post last fall reported that the Hostess business may go up for sale in 2015, and in mid-April reported that Hostess’ owners — Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos — were looking to sell the business for about $2 billion just two years after buying the Hostess snack cake business for $410 million. The $2 billion figure is roughly 10 times the company’s annual $200 million of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), according to sources.
None of the companies mentioned in the Post story have commented publicly about the bidding, but Allen Shiver, president and chief executive officer of Flowers Foods, responded to an analyst’s question about the Post story during a May 28 conference call to discuss first-quarter results.
“As we’ve said in the past, we look at all acquisition opportunities within the category, and it really would not be appropriate for us to comment on Hostess at this point,” Mr. Shiver said.
