Friday, November 26, 2010
Del Monte to be bought for $4 billion
NEW YORK
Del Monte Foods Co. on Thursday agreed to be bought for $4 billion in cash by a group of investors that includes its former owner in what would be the biggest private equity deal of the year.
An investor group led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. — which briefly owned Del Monte — Vestar Capital Partners and Centerview Partners agreed to buy the food maker for $19 per share. They will also assume $1.3 billion in debt.
The purchase price is a 6 percent premium to the stock’s closing price on Wednesday, though the stock has soared recently on published reports about a possible buyout. The stock is up 59 percent since the beginning of the year, including a 12 percent jump on Nov. 18 when rumors of the deal surfaced.
Del Monte, based in San Francisco, is the owner of several well-known pet-food brands, including Kibbles ’n Bits, Meow Mix and Milk-Bone. It also has food brands under the Del Monte, Contadina, College Inn and S&W names.
Quick bailout sought for Ireland
berlin
The 16-nation euro currency will survive the debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday, and a senior central banker said the European Union would be willing to increase its $1 trillion bailout fund if necessary.
Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also called for a swift conclusion of the negotiations for an Irish bailout.
Axel Weber, the head of Germany’s central bank and a leading rate-setter at the European Central Bank, said Thursday that European nations would be willing to boost the emergency fund by as much as $133 billion to fully cover the total public debt load of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
But when Merkel and Sarkozy discussed the eurozone’s troubles on the phone Thursday evening they said the emergency fund for the euro would remain unchanged until it expires in 2013, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
Stock markets mixed in Asia
TOKYO
Asian stock markets were mixed today after a muted performance in Europe where concerns remain about the possibility of further bailouts for debt-laden nations in the euro bloc.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average added 0.1 percent to 10,088.44 while South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.5 percent at 1,917.15. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.1 percent at 23,071.62.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9 percent to 2,872.81, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2 percent to 4,601.80. Elsewhere, markets in Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand fell.
Before trading opened in Tokyo, the government released data showing that consumer prices in Japan fell during October compared with a year earlier, for the 20th-straight month.
Associated Press