Blackstone takes a bite of Pinnacle


The Blackstone buyout machine continues to find new targets. The latest is Pinnacle Foods Group.

True, this does not compare to the mega deal for Equity Office Properties (NYSE: EOP).

Nevertheless, the price tag still has ten digits: $2.2 billion (if you include the debt load).

Pinnacle is an amalgam of consumer brands, such as Vlasic, Duncan Hines and Swanson. In other words, it is a stable cash-flow business, which is what private equity firms love.

Blackstone is buying the company from a group of private equity firms, which have spent the last three years restructuring the company's operations.

At 12X EBITDA, the deal is not cheap. Pinnacle is thus likely to be a platform for further acquisitions.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

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Last updated: February 13, 2012: 12:14 AM

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