Kellogg's (K, $59.43) Cookie Brands Are Being Eyed By Ferrero, Hostess (TWNK, $11.67), B&G (BGS, $28.51)

Kellogg might have found interested buyers for some of its cookie businesses.

Last year, Kellogg expressed plans to divest its Keebler, Famous Amos and fruit snacks segments. And now, Hostess Brands, B&G Foods and Ferrero have reportedly offered their first-round bids on the brands, according to a CNBC report citing people familiar with the matter. If the deal goes through, Kellogg could receive more than $1.5 billion from the sale proceeds. Some private equity firms are also reportedly eyeing the brands.

In recent years, we’ve witnessed Ferrero, Hostess and B&G focus on expanding their offerings, by acquiring various snacks/cookie brands. In 2017, Ferrero paid around $1 billion to buy Ferrara Candy Company, and followed it with a $2.8 billion purchase of Nestle's U.S. candy business. Hostess last year acquired breakfast brands the Big Texas and Cloverhill from Aryzta. B&G bought Green Giant from General Mills for $765 million in 2015 and McCann's Irish oatmeal from TreeHouse Foods for $32 million last year. However, no official announcement has been made yet by these companies about their reported interest in Kellogg’s cookie brands.

Meanwhile, Kellogg is also looking to sell its Murray and Mother's cookies.

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Sergey Savastiouk|Expert

Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.