Snacks maker UTZ Brands to be taken private in US$2.9 billion deal

A banner for Utz Brands, which is listed at the New York Stock Exchange, hangs on the exterior of the building, Monday, Aug. 31, 2020, in New York. The Hanover, Pa. based company is known for its potato chips and snack foods. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Salty snacks maker Utz Brands on Tuesday agreed to be acquired by Germany’s Intersnack Group in a deal valued at about US$2.9 billion, including debt, sending the U.S. company’s shares up about 85 per cent premarket.

Intersnack, a private family-founded snack company, said it would buy all outstanding shares of Utz Brands for US$14.25 per share in cash, representing a premium of 91.3 per cent to Utz’s last closing price.

Utz shares were trading at US$13.98 before the bell.

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The transaction will take the U.S. snacks maker private. Following the deal’s completion, Intersnack and the Rice and Lissette family entities, descendants of Utz’s founding family, will each own 50 per cent of the company.

(Reporting by Sanskriti Shekhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Jonathan Ananda)