EXCLUSIVE
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A box of 10 Hostess Twinkies
To quote Twinkie the Kid, some investors still believe there’s “a big delight in every bite” of those golden sponge cakes.
Private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners and at least one other bidder made formal offers by yesterday’s deadline to buy bankrupt Hostess Brands, offering a potential lifeline to the maker of the iconic snack cakes, The Post has learned.
A source said the bids likely ranged between $500 million and $600 million for the nation’s biggest bakery, whose stable of brands also includes Wonder Bread and Drake’s coffee cake.
Hostess, the unions and lenders will meet with the bankruptcy judge Monday to tell him if they find either offer acceptable.
Privately owned Hostess filed for bankruptcy in January — the second time in the past decade. Hostess owes more than $860 million to lenders, mainly hedge funds that have the right to block the sale of the company.
Hostess and the powerful Teamsters union are at odds over how to restructure worker pensions, with the firm seeking to stop contributing to most of the union’s 22 pension funds. Both bidders submitted offers that called for contributing to more than just the two funds Hostess has proposed, a source said.
The behemoth baker sent notices this week to its more than 18,000 workers warning they could be fired during the next two months.
KPS declined to comment and Hostess did not return calls.
Hostess Brands, KPS Capital Partners, Hostess TwinkiesTo
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