Campbell Soup Eats Up Snyder in Huge Acquisition

Snyder’s-Lance Inc. (NASDAQ: LNCE) saw its shares make a handy gain early on Monday after it was announced that Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) would be acquiring the company. The deal is valued up to $4.87 billion and is expected to close by the second quarter of 2018. This deal is still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

Under the terms of the deal, Campbell will acquire Snyder’s-Lance for $50 per share in an all-cash transaction. The company plans to finance the acquisition through $6.2 billion of debt, composed of a combination of long-term and short-term debt.

This marks the sixth acquisition by Campbell in five years in an effort to expand and reshape its portfolio. Campbell’s baked snacks product portfolio generated roughly $2.5 billion in net sales in fiscal 2017, and Snyder’s-Lance reported about $2.2 billion in net sales for the 12 trailing months ended in September. With the addition of Snyder’s-Lance’s complementary portfolio, snacking would represent approximately 46% of Campbell’s annual net sales (previously 31%).

Also looking ahead, Campbell expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted EPS in fiscal 2019, excluding integration costs and costs to achieve synergies.

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Denise Morrison, Campbell’s president and CEO, commented:

The acquisition of Snyder’s-Lance will accelerate Campbell’s strategy and is in line with our Purpose, ‘real food that matters for life’s moments.’ It will provide our consumers with an even greater variety of better-for-you snacks. The combination of Snyder’s-Lance brands with Pepperidge Farm, Arnott’s and Kelsen will create a diversified snacking leader, drive sales growth and create value for shareholders. This acquisition will dramatically transform Campbell, shifting our center of gravity and further diversifying our portfolio into the faster-growing snacking category. We look forward to welcoming Snyder’s-Lance’s employees and their trusted family of leading brands to our company.

Shares of Campbell were last seen up about 1% at $50.09, with a consensus analyst price target of $47.73 and a 52-week range of $45.00 to $64.23.

Snyder’s-Lance traded up about 7% at $49.94 a share. It has a 52-week range of $31.03 to $50.00 and a consensus price target of $41.71.

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