Cramer: Treehouse Foods is LBO fund in disguise

Where are people making money? According to Jim Cramer on tonight's MAD MONEY, it's in the LBO market. He noted that KKR is actually down in Netherlands since coming public. If you're going to make some money, you'll need to get close to an LBO, and tonight Cramer recommended a private label food company called TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS) as a great play in LBOs. The company is, among other things, the leading supplier of private-label pickles and non-dairy powdered creamer in the U.S.

The soup and baby food units and others are helping it. The company is not just a food company, it's a leveraged buyout play. The owners have done this before with Keebler by flipping it to Kellogg Company (NYSE:K). He thinks THS is worth betting on. The food business is slow and non-growth in general, but this company is an acquisition company and it is growing earnings with select acquisitions.

He has profiled THS before, but the company has grown since. Now it has a high enough share price to go out and make deals -- so he would be a buyer of THS right now even at the 52-week high.

THS has a $18.33 to $30.50 52-week trading range. THS closed up 1.5% at $30.64, a new 52-week high and above the old high noted from Friday; it traded up another 4% to $32.00 after Cramer touted this stock.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. [Photo Stefan Powell]