Hostess Floats 200 Million in Cost Cuts to Exit Bankruptcy
In a heavily negotiated deal months in the making, Hostess Brands this week extended its final offer to unions representing nearly half the company's employees in order to save the company and force it out of bankruptcy, CNBC.com reported yesterday. The proposed deal would save Hostess nearly $200 million in costs, according to a person familiar with the matter, with some $60 million in transaction fees being forfeited by advisers involved in the deal in order to improve liquidity. According to the plan, wage cuts of 8 percent (saving roughly $40 million) would be implemented across the entire company, including management. Company contributions to health plans would be slashed by 17 percent. The biggest cuts would come to the company's multi-employer pension plans, where Hostess will slash $75 million by ceasing contribution until January 2015. At that time, the company will contribute a quarter of the amount it did previously.