Darling International To Buy Maple Leaf's Rothsay Division For C$645 Mln Cash

(RTTNews) - Darling International Inc. (DAR), a provider of rendering, recycling and recovery solutions, Friday said that it entered into a definitive agreement to buy Rothsay, a recycler of animal by-products in Canada, a division of Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (MFI.TO), for about C$645 million in cash.

Randall Stuewe, Darling International's Chairman and CEO said, "The combination of our two companies will create North America's leading provider of independent rendering and recycling services."

Darling expects to fund deal through a combination of borrowings under a new Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility and Term A Bank Loan Facility. Rothsay had EBITDA of about $85 million in 2012. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2013.

Maple, in a separate statement said that proceeds from the sale will be initially used to pay debt. Upon completion of the prepared meats strategy, Maple will reinvest the excess capital in its consumer packaged food businesses.

BMO Capital Markets Corp. served as financial advisor, K&L Gates and Bennett Jones served as legal counsel to Darling, and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will lead the debt financing.