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NEW YORK — Diamond Foods Inc. is buying Procter & Gamble Co.’s Pringles chips business in a $1.5 billion deal, the biggest in a string that have given the maker of Pop Secret popcorn and Kettle chips a growing share of the snack aisle.
The deal also completes P&G’s exit from all its major food businesses. The maker of Tide and Pampers has sold off Folgers coffee, Jif peanut butter, Crisco Shortening and Sunny Delight drinks in recent years.
The Pringles deal is structured to create a new company under the Diamond Foods name. P&G shareholders will get about 57 percent of the combined company, while Diamond shareholders will own about 43 percent.
Diamond, founded in 1912 by a group of California walnut growers, was known nuts in shells for most of its history. But since going public in 2005, it has steadily broadened its array of snacks, picking up Pop Secret in 2008 and Kettle last year.
The Pringles transaction will dwarf those deals, more than tripling Diamond’s revenue to about $2.4 billion a year.
Pringles would become the third billion-dollar brand to be sold off by P&G in recent years, after Folgers and Actonel. It leaves P&G with 23 brands with $1 billion in annual sales or more.
Diamond’s stock jumped $5.88, or 10.3 percent, to $63.10 in morning trading, near their 52-week high of $63.87.
Photo Credit – the associated press
Cutline – Pringles chips are displayed at a grocery store on Tuesday. The Diamond deal completes P&G’s exit from all its food businesses.
