Hostess' Wonder bread brand sold for $360 million

Staff and wire reports, CNBC , NBC News ? ? ? 2 hrs.

The long wait remains for Twinkies fans to find out who may rescue their beloved, cream-filled sponge cakes.

Flowers Foods Inc. will buy Hostess Brands Inc.'s Wonder bread business for $360 million after no other bidder emerged with a competing offer, a source told CNBC Wednesday.

Wonder bread was meant to be auctioned Wednesday by the bankrupt baker. Instead it will be going to Flowers, along with the Butternut, Home Pride, Merita and Nature's Pride brands, according to Reuters, which also cited an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

There will be an auction for the Beefsteak brand, for which Flowers bid $30 million, since Hostess received a higher bid from Mexico's Grupo Bimbo, said the source, who declined to be named as the process is private.

Bimbo bid $1 million more for the Beefsteak brand, though its $31.9 million bid includes a $900,000 breakup fee.

The deal with Flowers is still subject to approval by a bankruptcy court.

Flowers agreed in January to be the "stalking horse" bidder, which set a floor for the bidding and was subject to a court-supervised auction.

Hostess declined to comment. Flowers and Bimbo were not immediately available to comment.

Hostess expects to run two more auctions next month. One would be for the Hostess snack cake brands, including Hostess Twinkies and Dolly Madison, for which private equity firms Apollo Global Management LLC and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. set the bidding at $410 million.

The other would be for its Drake's cake business and additional bread brands. So far, McKee Foods, maker of Little Debbie snack cakes, offered $27.5 million for Drake's, which includes Ring Dings, Yodels and Devil Dogs.

United States Bakery Inc, also known as Franz Family Bakery, agreed to pay $28.85 million for the Sweetheart, Eddy's, Standish Farms and Grandma Emilie's bread brands.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/hostess-wonder-bread-business-being-bought-360-million-1C8589378

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