Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) has agreed to purchase the Skippy peanut butter brand from Unilever plc (NYSE:UL). Hormel said in a statement that the deal is worth around $700 million. The Minnesota Spam maker said it expects sales of Skippy peanut butter to be about $370 million each year and to add between 13 and 17 cents of earnings per share during the company’s 2013 fiscal year.
Unilever said in October that it may sell the Skippy brand, which is the second most popular brand in the U.S. behind Jif and the top peanut butter brand in China. The purchase of Skippy is Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL)’s largest acquisition. Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ data shows that its last purchase was the Turkey Store Company, which it bought in 2011. As part of the Skippy brand purchase, Hormel will receive the production facilities located in China and Arkansas.
The deal still must be finalized by regulators. Shares of Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) rose more than 2.5 percent in Wednesday trades and remained the same in premarket trading on Thursday. Shares of Unilever plc (NYSE:UL) increased almost 1 percent on Wednesday but erased those gains in premarket trades on Thursday, losing more than 1 percent.
Meanwhile Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) also pushed back the date on which it would mark which shareholders will receive its increased dividend. In November Hormel announced that the dividend would go up from 15 cents to 17 cents per share on Feb. 15 for shareholders of record as of Jan. 21. However, now the company will pay the increased dividend to shareholders of record as of Jan. 22.
