Blackstone to snap Birds Eye Foods up in $1.3bn cash deal
Private equity titan Blackstone is set to buy Birds Eye Foods through its portfolio firm Pinnacle Foods.
Pinnacle Foods, which already owns pancake mixture company Mrs Butterworths, will pay more than $1.3bn (£700m) for the biggest frozen-vegetable firm in the US.
Birds Eye is majority owned by private equity firms Vestar Capital Partners, while New York agricultural group Pro-Fac Cooperative owns 40 per cent of the business.
The Birds Eye brand has $640m in net sales in the US, with a 25 per cent market share in frozen vegetables.
Birds Eye in October had planned an initial public offering of $350m, which it wanted to use to pay down its $700m of long-term debt.
Pinnacle Foods was advised by Blackstone, Barclays Capital, BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. Birds Eye was advised by Centerview Partners and JPMorgan.
Pinnacle Foods chief executive said: “The transaction provides meaningful opportunities to create value and strengthens our financial position.”
Blackstone has recently ramped up its deal activity by buying Anheuser-Busch InBev’s US theme parks for up to $2.7bn.