Olympus Partners to buy Arbor-backed Rise Baking: source, FTC filing

Arbor Investments has settled on a buyer for Rise Baking.

Olympus Partners is buying Rise Baking, according to a source and a July 20 post on the FTC site. Early-termination notices appear on the FTC site after the regulator has conducted an antitrust review of a deal.

How much Olympus is paying for Rise is unclear. Arbor was seeking roughly $550 million for the company, Buyouts has reported.

An Arbor portfolio company, Rise Baking went up for sale earlier this year. Harris Williams and Evercore advised on the process, Buyouts said.

Rise Baking, Minneapolis, is known for its artisan bread, cookies, crispy bars and brownies. Arbor used a rollup strategy to form Rise, combining New French Bakery, Best Maid Cookie and South Coast Baking.

Arbor received multiple bids for Rise with the process leaning more to private equity, Buyouts said in June.

Olympus Partners is the Stamford, Connecticut, middle-market buyout shop that invests in sectors including business services, consumer and restaurants, as well as industrial and packaging.

In January, Olympus sold its controlling stake in National Pizza Co, a franchisee of Pizza Hut and Wendy’s, to an unknown buyer. Another deal in December saw Olympus selling Phoenix Services to Apollo Global in December and, in November Sodexo bought Centerplate from Olympus for $675 million.

Olympus is investing out of its seventh PE fund, which closed on $3.04 billion in December.

Arbor, Chicago, focuses on middle-market food, beverage and related companies. In late 2017, Arbor sold Columbus Manufacturing to Hormel Food for $850 million. The buyout shop made nearly 8x its money with the sale, Buyouts reported.

Arbor in 2016 closed its fourth fund on $765 million while a subordinated-debt fund raised $125 million.

Rise Baking, Olympus, Harris Williams, and Arbor could not be reached for comment. Evercore declined comment.

Action Item: Contact Greg Purcell, Arbor’s CEO, at +1 312-981-3770