Hostess Brands Selects Winning Bidder for Majority of Snack Cake Business, Twinkies®

Hostess Brands.Info ^ | March 12, 2013 | Hostess Brands Info

[xzins]

Hostess Brands Selects Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. as Winning Bidder for Majority of Snack Cake Business, Including Twinkies®

Agreement Includes Both Hostess® and Dolly Madison® Brands

Company to Seek Court Approval of Sale on March 19

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 12, 2013 - Hostess Brands Inc. ("Hostess Brands" or "the Company") announced that the stalking horse bid submitted by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) (collectively with its subsidiaries "Apollo") and Metropoulos & Co. ("Metropoulos") for the majority of the Company's snack cake business, which includes both Hostess® and Dolly Madison® branded products, will be the bid presented for approval to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court as no other qualified bids were received for those assets.

Apollo and Metropoulos have agreed to pay $410 million to purchase the brands, five bakeries and certain equipment. Among the products included are the Company's Twinkies®, Ho Hos®, Ding Dongs® and Donettes® snack cakes. The Company will ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to approve the transaction at a hearing on March 19.

"The agreement results in significant value for our stakeholders and we look forward to putting the proposed transaction before the Court next week," said Hostess Brands Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregory F. Rayburn.

As previously announced, Flowers Foods, Inc. has agreed to pay $360 million for the majority of the bread business assets. The agreement includes, in addition to the brands, 20 bakeries, 38 depots and other assets. In a separate transaction, Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. ("Grupo Bimbo") was selected as the winning bidder for the assets related to the Company's Beefsteak® bread business at the conclusion of a Feb. 28 auction. Grupo Bimbo has agreed to pay $31.9 million for the Beefsteak® assets. The Court will also consider approval of these brands at the same March 19 hearing for the Hostess® and Dolly Madison® brands.

On March 15 Hostess Brands will conduct an auction for its Drake's® snack cake business and Sweetheart®, Standish Farms®, Grandma Emilie's® and Eddy's® bread businesses. The combined stalking horse bids for those assets total approximately $56.6 million.

Jones Day provided legal advice to Hostess Brands on all of the transactions. Perella Weinberg Partners served as the Company's financial advisor.

[Beeman]

20 ounces—no way! Nothing less than a 32 ounce Big Gulp!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Apollo Global Management

Among the most notable companies currently owned by Apollo are AMC Entertainment, Claire’s, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Realogy (Coldwell Banker and Century 21 Real Estate), CKE (Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. Restaurants. Ltd) and CORE Media Group (American Idol, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Muhammad Ali Enterprises).

Metropoulos & Co.

These businesses include Pabst Blue Ribbon, Stella Foods, The Morningstar Group, Ghiradelli Chocolate, International Home Foods (Chef Boyardee, PAM, Bumble Bee Seafood, Gulden’s mustard and other brands), Pinnacle Foods (Swanson, Hungry Man, Vlasic pickles and other brands), which merged with Aurora Foods (Dunkin Hines , Aunt Jemima, Lenders bagels and other well-known brands), Mumm and Perrier Jouet Champagnes of France, Hillsdown Holdings of the U.K., Del Monte Foods of Mexico among others.

[xzins]

I’m betting that the restaurants and realty holdings are not union. I know that the casinos sometimes have unions. I can’t speak to the other companies and their union relationships.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

I’d strip the equipment and move elsewhere to a right-to-work state. Then I’d sell the building shell.

That would make sense. But I think I remember something about the bakeries remaining union, as part of the bankruptcy agreement.

But don't quote me. I could be wrong.

[xzins]

The bread and the snacks divisions were different. In fact, one of the problems was that unions wouldn’t allow bread to be shipped on the same truck with snacks, even if they were going to the same location.

I wonder if also the bread bakeries were seen as different than the snacks bakeries???

[highball]

I wonder how many ex-bakers union employees will be applying for a job with the company under new ownership? If the new HR department manager is smart, he/she will be ready with a big red “REJECTED” stamp.

Good point. If I were the new owners, any previous union employees would never get a first interview.

Why is that? Union employees aren't the problem. The problem is union bosses, who contribute noting and suck the company's blood. And the members'.

Many of the members wouldn't choose to join a union in the first place, but had to as a condition of getting their job. Why punish them, and deprive the company of all their experience? Better to hire back the old workers on a more sane contract.