Gordian-Group to advise to Bakery-Union- FLO

Northern, WI 1/22/2013 (avauncer) -Gordian Group, a specialist in troubled cases, has been roped in by Hostess Brands Inc. to carve out a deal with potential buyers to oversee that the jobs and benefits of its workers are not affected.

It is presumed that Gordian will be able to offer unbiased guidance for the workers’ benefits since it has no allegiances to bondholders nor any holdings whatsoever in Hostess.

Grupo Bimbo of Mexico & a JV of Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos are among the two top contenders to take over the Hostess’ snack cake brands which includes the famous Twinkies brand.

Hostess have also confirmed that Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) has bid $390 million for its Wonder bread brand and Nature’s Pride and Butternut. But the auction will be court-supervised.

The Bakers Fund will directly parley with the bidders and have Gordian as the adviser as it has a good reputation in distress sales.The main concern of the Bakers Fund is to protect the benefits of the affected workers.

After a long strike by the baker’s union, Hostess went bankrupt and was forced to down shutters and liquidate. It expects to generate $400 million through this auction sale. Hostess believes that the baseline for the auction shall be set by Jan. 25.

Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bread maker with a huge US presence, had also tried for Hostess’ bread business but were out-bid by Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO).

Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) shares were down 0.15% to $27.06.