Now this could be a real sweet nibble.
The former chief executive of Hershey Foods is closing in on a deal to buy gummy bears maker Ferrara Candy Co. for roughly $1.5 billion, The Post has learned.
David West, Hershey CEO between 2007 and 2011, co-heads Centerview Capital’s listed shell company, Conyers Park Acquisition, which in July raised $403 million to seek and buy a consumer business.
Conyers Park is one of a few suitors along with private equity firms still in the auction to buy Ferrara, the country’s largest independent American maker of confectionary products, including Trolli gummi bears, Atomic Fireballs and Brach’s. Final bids for the Forest Park, Illinois, company are due next week, two sources said.
Centerview is known as an investment bank but also makes modest-sized investments.
That West and several private equity firms are interested in paying 10 times Ferrara’s $150 million in Ebitda even though Ferrara is an unhealthy snack company shows at least among private equity buyers there is an appetite for bad foods.
“It is a little bit of a fools errand to be just focused on health and wellness,” a consumer investment banker said pointing to the decent stock performances of several bad-for-you food companies.
Shares of The Hershey Co. rose 14 percent in the last year; B&G Foods, owner of Pirate’s Booty and Green Giant, is up 28 percent; and Hostess Brands 31 percent.
“What hasn’t happened is strategics [food conglomerates] getting interested in unhealthy foods,” leaving potential targets including Ferrara for the private equity crowd, the banker said.
If West buys Ferrara he would hope to be following in the footsteps of Alec Gores. He too had a similarly sized blank check company, and in July led a $2.3 billion buyout of Hostess. Since, shares in the listed company now called Hostess Brands have risen significantly.
Private equity firm L Catterton, which owns Ferrara, could still opt to cancel the sale, and list Ferrara on the public markets. However, there are significant adjustments in its earnings that would make it difficult to get a good market valuation, sources said.
L Catterton declined comment. West did not return calls.