By Eyk Henning and Jessica Hodgson
LONDON--Intersnack Group GmBH & Co., a privately held German
company, is exploring a bid for the savoury snacks unit of United
Biscuits, the Hayes, England based food company, a person familiar
with the matter said Friday.
Western Germany-based Intersnack is one of Europe's largest
makers of savoury snacks with annual sales of 1.5 billion euros
($1.94 billion) and around 6,000 employees.
United Biscuits, maker of Hula Hoops and Twiglets, which is
owned by private equity groups Blackstone Group (BX) and PAI
Partners, recently sent sale memoranda out to a number of potential
buyers, the person said. Although the person didn't identify the
recipients, they are likely to include many European
consumer-focused private equity groups, U.S. food groups including
Kellogg Co. (K) and Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) and possibly some
Chinese food groups such as Hanghzou Wahaha Group. Credit Suisse
(CS) is running the sale.
PAI declined to comment, Blackstone couldn't be reached for
comment Friday.
Credit Suisse earlier this year completed a process of splitting
United Biscuits into two parts, the savoury snacks business and a
larger rump business that houses brands including Jaffa Cakes and
Jacob's biscuits, a prelude to the savoury snacks sale. It's
unclear what United Biscuits plans to do with the rump biscuits
business.
Splitting the group was a reaction to an earlier, failed sale
process run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and JPMorgan Chase
& Co. (JPM) almost two years ago.
-Write to Jessica Hodgson at jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com
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