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News > Companies
Heinz slims diet business
July 22, 1999: 11:02 a.m. ET

Food processor secures sale of Weight Watchers with $735M LBO
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Heinz Corp. agreed Thursday to sell the bulk of its Weight Watchers diet products business to a group of private investors and management in a $735 million leveraged buyout.
     The Pittsburgh-based food processor is selling Weight Watchers to Artal Luxembourg, a European firm. The unit's management will also be invited to participate in the deal, and Heinz will retain a 6 percent stake in the unit valued at $14 million.
     In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow to buy a company and try to repay the debts with funds from the business' operations or asset sales.
     Heinz will retain some Weight Watchers brands, including frozen meals and desserts, its U.K. Weight Watchers operation, and other food items which fit into the core products strategy.
     The Pittsburgh-based food processor announced plans in February to sell the business as part of a company-wide restructuring that will see it focus on six core brand areas and six countries, and cut up to 4,000 jobs.
     The company took a $411 million second quarter charge to fund the restructuring, and beat Wall Street expectations with 60 cents a share in earnings for the quarter.
     Heinz (HNZ) shares slipped 1/16 to 49-13/16 in morning trading Thursday. Back to top

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.