Hicks Muse Hooks Seafood Spinout –

It’s all about the shell game for Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., which last month agreed to acquire a company that processes and distributes non-fat simulations of lobster, crab and scallop meat.

The acquisition will be made by International Home Foods, a publicly-listed company in which Hicks Muse owns a 60% stake. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The business is a division of Tyson Foods that processes whiting fish and ocean pollack caught in the North Pacific. Workers blend the meats into a paste-like product known as surimi, which can be flavored and shaped into replicas of popular seafoods, such as crab. The division has annual sales of approximately $100 million.

Surimi products are popular in Asia and increasingly popular in the U.S. because of their high protein and low fat content, according to Lou Pellicano, an executive vice president at C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., Hicks Muse’s operating partner for food properties.

Hicks Muse acquired International Home Foods from American Home Products Corp. in 1996 for $1.3 billion. A year later, the Texas buyout firm completed an initial public offering that raised approximately $200 million for the company.

International Home Foods has made 10 add-ons, the largest being Bumble Bee, known for its canned tuna. Mr. Pellicano said the surimi business likely would be integrated into Bumble Bee’s planned expansion into refrigerated seafoods.