Flowers Foods Inc.—known for its brands Wonder Bread, Dave’s Killer Bread, and Tastykake—sold $800 million of high-grade bonds to help finance its acquisition of natural foods company Simple Mills Inc.
The Thomasville, Georgia-based company sold the bonds in two parts, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The longest portion of the offering, a 30-year security, yields 1.5 percentage points above Treasuries after initially discussing around 1.8 percentage points, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the details are private.
The firm is among three blue-chip firms that sold bonds Tuesday ahead of a key reading on inflation Wednesday. Proceeds will be used to partly fund the cash consideration for its deal for the maker of cracker and pancake mixes, Simple Mills, as well as to pay fees and expenses related to the acquisition and for general corporate purposes, said the person. Representatives for Flowers Foods didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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Last month, the baked goods company agreed to buy Simple Mills for $795 million in cash from Katlin Smith, management, its largest individual shareholder Vestar Capital Partners, and initial angel investors. Flowers Foods executives said at the time that the deal would immediately boost sales and that they expected to have a net debt–to–EBITDA ratio of around 3.1 to 3.3 times when the deal closed in the first quarter.
S&P Global Ratings assigned a BBB credit rating to the proposed senior unsecured notes, adding that its negative outlook on the issuer reflects the risk that Flowers Foods will not restore leverage to below 3 times within 24 months of the acquisition close.
Bank of America Corp., Deutsche Bank AG, RBC Capital Markets, and Wells Fargo & Co managed the bond sale.
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