Hostess Brands is expected to name Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management as the preferred bidder for Twinkies and its other snack brands, The Post has learned.
The announcement from the bankrupt baker could come as soon as today, sources said.
The selection of Apollo would give Manhattan buyout billionaire Leon Black the inside track to buying one of the country’s most well-known consumer brands.
Black’s Apollo and co-bidder C. Dean Metropoulos, a veteran food exec, were vying with Grupo Bimbo, the Mexico-based baker, for the right to be the preferred, or stalking horse, bidder for Twinkies, Ho Ho’s, Ding Dongs and other Hostess snacks.
The selection would seem to be a setback for the Teamsters, which represented former Hostess delivery drivers. The union had pressed Hostess Chief Executive Greg Rayburn to choose Bimbo, which owns the 115-year-old Entenmann’s brand, over Apollo if the bids were close, sources close to the matter said.
Details of the two bids could not be learned at press time. Irving, Texas-based Hostess, which shut down in November after its bakers union struck over steep pay and benefit cuts, is now selling the assets.
The Teamsters backed Bimbo’s bid because it has a unionized work force and would likely hire at least some of the roughly 9,000 idled Hostess drivers. Apollo and Metropoulos plan to use third parties for delivery and will not be hiring drivers, sources said.
Flowers Foods, which has already been named the preferred bidder for the bread business, including Wonder Bread, also will move to third party delivery, a source said.
Richie Cestaro, who has driven a Hostess snacks truck in Queens and Long Island for 24 years, told The Post that about 75 percent of the 40 or so workers at the Hicksville, NY, depot have not found work since being laid off in November.
“I personally filled out about 25 applications without one single reply,” he said.
Apollo, should it be named the stalking horse bidder, must still survive a bankruptcy court auction.
Apollo declined to comment. Hostess and the Teamsters did not return calls.