Hostess Brands, a US-based bankrupt producer of bakery products, has attained US Bankruptcy Court approval to sell its Drake's snack cake brand as well as four of its northwest regional bread brands in separate transactions that are approximately worth $58.4m.
The US Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain approved the sale of the company's Drake's snack cake brand and certain related assets to affiliates of McKee Foods for $27.5m. Drake's products include Ring Dings, Yodels, Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles, Sunny Doodles, and Drake's Coffee Cake.
The sale of the company's Sweetheart, Eddy's, Standish Farms, and Grandma Emilie's bread brands, four bakeries, and certain other related assets to affiliates of United States Bakery for approximately $30.9m.
With this, Hostess Brands has now obtained court approval of five transactions totaling approximately $860m.
Earlier, Judge Drain approved the sale of the company's snack cake business to affiliates of Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos for $410m, sale of the majority of the company's bread business, including its Wonder brand, to affiliates of Flowers Foods for $360m. The judge also approved the sale of the Beefsteak bread brand to affiliates of Grupo Bimbo for $31m.
Hostess Brands chairman and CEO Gregory Rayburn said that the sale of Drake's and the bread brands are the culmination of our efforts to sell the company's major assets.
"All of the Company's beloved brands can now live on and, importantly, we have maximized value for the Company's stakeholders. We now turn our attention to selling remaining miscellaneous assets and completing the liquidation," Rayburn added.
Hostess Brands has retained Hilco Industrial to market and sell its remaining assets, including property and equipment.
Established in 1930, Hostess Brands' products include brands such as Hostess, Wonder, Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison, Drake's, Butternut, Home Pride, and Merita.
