PE-Backed Pinnacle Foods Plans IPO

Pinnacle Foods Inc., backed by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, filed with regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common stock. Barclays and BofA Merrill Lynch will be the lead underwriters for the offering, Pinnacle Foods said in a preliminary filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which was acquired by Blackstone in April 2007, manufactures branded food products in North America and had sales of $2.5 billion in fiscal 2011.

(Reuters) – Pinnacle Foods Inc., backed by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, filed with regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.

Barclays and BofA Merrill Lynch will be the lead underwriters for the offering, Pinnacle Foods said in a preliminary filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company, which was acquired by Blackstone in April 2007, manufactures branded food products in North America and had sales of $2.5 billion in fiscal 2011.

Blackstone owns about 98 percent of Pinnacle Foods’ common stock, the company said in the filing on Wednesday.

Pinnacle Foods, which says its products are found in 85 percent of U.S. households, intends to use proceeds from the offering to repay debt.

The filing did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or at what price.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.