KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Hostess Brands LLC owner Dean Metropoulos said that, contrary to a Reuters report, he and co-owner Apollo Global Management have no plans to take Kansas City, Mo.-based Hostess public with an initial public offering (IPO).
“An IPO is not on the table today,” Metropoulos told Forbes. “A number of people lobbed in interest to buy Hostess. We considered a number of offers well above $2 billion, but we decided there was too much upside. We’ve run the company for only two years. Not taking Hostess to its full potential is an inappropriate thing to do.”
The Reuters report cited an unnamed source that Hostess–maker of classic American treats like Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos–had scrapped plans to sell the company and was now pursuing an IPO.
Metropoulos denied the plans for an IPO and said there are no imminent plans for a sale. A Reuters report surfaced last year that the new owners of Hostess—Apollo and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. bought the snack maker out of bankruptcy for $410 million in March 2013—were having conversations with investment banks about their role in a possible sale. Earlier this year, Post Foods, Grupo Bimbo, Flowers Foods and Swiss-based Aryzta AG reportedly made nonbinding bids to acquire Hostess. Forbes said Mondelez International was also a suitor.
“We were a little distracted over the past weeks with the interest being expressed in a sale and a potential IPO. But on both counts we feel it’s too early,” Metropoulos told the publication.
“We have room for international growth and to create new products—we’ve introduced more new products this past year than many companies do in five years,” he said. “That will continue. We’ll also look for brands to buy and build. We have a great platform for strategic and accretive acquisitions.”
Daren Metropoulos, who previously ran brewer Pabst Blue Ribbon and currently heads Hostess marketing, said, “We love owning this business, and we want continue to invest and grow it. We haven’t even scratched the surface on the potential of this company.”
In other company news, Richard C. Seban, who played a central role in the winding down of Hostess Brands Inc. and the post-bankruptcy revival of the business as Hostess Brands LLC, is retiring as vice chairman of Hostess Brands LLC, William Toler, president and CEO of Hostess, announced.
“We owe a tremendous amount of thanks to Rich for his contributions to Hostess over the last two years bringing the new Hostess Brands back to life,” Toler said in a letter to Hostess employees cited by World-Grain.com.
Seban first joined Interstate Bakeries Corp. (later renamed Hostess Brands) in 2005, and he was the executive who in November 2013 was tasked with notifying customers that the company would cease operations. Following the liquidation of the business, Seban was named president of Hostess Brands. He was named vice chairman of the company in May 2014 when he was succeeded by Toler.
While at IBC/Hostess, Seban held the positions of executive vice president and chief marketing officer, chief customer officer and COO. Before that, his career included stints with Rich Foods, where he was vice president of consumer products; 16 years at Sara Lee Corp., where he rose to the position of executive vice president of marketing; and then High Liner Foods, where he was president and COO.
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