Birds Eye Foods is being sold by its private equity owners for $1.3bn to Blackstone’s Pinnacle Foods, it was announced on Thursday. The deal, to be funded with $300m in additional equity from Blackstone and $1bn in debt, provides fresh evidence of a thaw in the long freeze in global dealmaking – at least for consumer brands promising steady cash flows. The purchase price represents about as much as Birds Eye would have gained in a planned listing. That listing, set for this quarter, was dropped by the food maker’s main owner, buy-out group Vestar Capital Partners, after some investors expressed interest in the company.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 4:25 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A, Private equity. Tagged with Birds Eye Foods, blackstone, pinnacle foods, Vestar. Edit this entry.