AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amplify Snack Brands, Inc. (NYSE:BETR) announced that effective today it has completed the acquisition of Crisps Topco Limited and Subsidiaries. Tyrrells is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amplify. The Company continues to expect that this acquisition will be accretive to both its 2017 and 2018 diluted earnings per share.
As part of the transaction, Amplify paid approximately £278 million in cash and issued approximately 2.1 million shares of its common stock to Investcorp and members of Tyrrells’ management team. Amplify financed the cash portion of this transaction with proceeds from a $600 million covenant lite term loan. The interest rate on the term loan is a floating rate based upon LIBOR plus 5.50% with a 1.00% floor on LIBOR. A $50 million, five-year revolver adjoins the term loan. Pro forma for the transaction, net leverage is approximately 5.7x. Amplify remains committed to maintaining long-term net leverage in the 4.0x to 4.5x range or less and expects to be within that range by the end of 2017, via organic growth and subsequent free cash generation.
“We took a tremendous step forward to build upon our Better-For-You snacking growth strategy with the acquisition of Tyrrells and its international portfolio of premium snack brands,” said Tom Ennis, Amplify’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited to welcome David Milner and the entire Tyrrells team to the Amplify family and look forward to significantly broadening our international customer reach, meaningfully diversifying our brand, product, category, geographic and retail presence, as we realize the benefits of operating scale to fuel our future revenue synergies and continued sales and profit growth.”
Jefferies served as the Company’s exclusive financial advisor, and also acted as the lead left arranger and Administrative Agent for the financing. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs acted as Joint Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners, and as Syndication Agents. SunTrust served as Documentation Agent for the transaction.
About Amplify Snack Brands, Inc.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Amplify Snack Brands is a high growth snack food company focused on developing and marketing products that appeal to consumers’ growing preference for Better-For-You (BFY) snacks. Our brands SkinnyPop®, Paqui® and Oatmega® embody our BFY mission of “snacking without compromise” and have amassed a loyal customer base across a wide range of food distribution channels in the United States and Canada. For additional information, please visit: http://amplifysnackbrands.com.
About Crisps Topco Limited and Subsidiaries
Crisps Topco Limited and Subsidiaries (“Tyrrells”) is based on a farm in the picturesque countryside in the English county of Herefordshire and since its creation in 2002, has grown to become one of the UK's best loved premium snack brands. The Tyrrells portfolio consists of award-winning Potato Crisps, Vegetable Crisps, 'Furrows' Crinkle Cut Crisps, Poshcorn - premium popcorn, and Tyrrells'Alternatives'. Tyrrells Crisps has recently scooped a Queens Award for Enterprise and is proud to hold over 64 gold Great Taste Awards, more than any other premium crisp producer.
