LONDON (Reuters) – Premier Foods (PFD.L), Britain’s biggest food manufacturer, is in talks with private equity firm CCMP Capital about a major cash injection, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
Premier Foods, which saw its shares fall in August over renewed concerns about debt levels, makes Hovis bread, Mr Kipling cakes, Branston pickle and Oxo cubes.
The report said Premier had contacted CCMP, formerly the private-equity arm of JP Morgan, about a cash injection likely to be worth “several hundred million pounds”.
Premier had debt of over 1.8 billion pounds ($3.11 billion) by the end of June. The newspaper said it had not been decided how any investment would be structured.
“Effectively the company is looking for a bridge that will remove the uncertainty about the debt and banking covenant issues,” the paper quoted a person with knowledge of the talks as saying.
A spokesman for Premier Foods declined to comment on the report. No one from CCMP was immediately available to comment.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Andrew Callus)
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