Niman Ranch, Natural Meat Maker, Is Attracting Buyer Interest

Private equity-backed Natural Food Holdings Inc., the Sioux City, Iowa-based parent of Niman Ranch Inc. and a producer of natural and organic prepared meat, is receiving plenty of inbound buyer interest from strategics both domestic and international, said a source familiar with the situation. White Plains, N.Y.-based PE firm LNK Partners LLC, which has Natural Food Holdings in its portfolio, is weighing its options due to the interest, particularly in light of the rich valuation that Applegate Farms LLC received from Hormel Foods Corp. The price tag Austin, Minn.-based Hormel paid for Bridgewater, N.J.-based Applegate was $775 million, more than double the target's revenue of $340 million. San Francisco PE firm Swander Pace Capital LLC ultimately generated a return of six times the equity it invested into Applegate. LNK said in June 2011 that it spent $68 million in order to acquire Natural Food Holdings, which also consists of meat packing unit Sioux-Preme Packing Co. and Prairie Grove Farms, another consumer brand. Subscribe to TheStreetTV on YouTube: http://t.st/TheStreetTV For more content from TheStreet visit: http://thestreet.com Check out all our videos: http://youtube.com/user/TheStreetTV Follow TheStreet on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thestreet Like TheStreet on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheStreet Follow TheStreet on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/theStreet Follow TheStreet on Google+: http://plus.google.com/+TheStreet