Turkey's largest food group Yildiz Holding said on Monday it had acquired UK-based cookies and snacks maker United Biscuits, in a move it said made it the world's third-biggest biscuit maker and would help it expand into new markets.It is the third and largest acquisition by the Turkish group in recent years as it strives to become a global name.United Biscuits' private equity owners Blackstone Group and PAI Partners confirmed they had agreed the sale of the Jaffa Cakes maker and said the deal was expected to close shortly.Yildiz bought premium chocolate maker Godiva for $850 million in 2007 and DeMet's Candy Company, the U.S. maker of Flipz chocolate pretzels and Turtles covered nut clusters, for $221 million last year.
The Blackstone Group L.P. (Blackstone) is a manager of private capital and provider of financial advisory services. Shares of BX traded higher by 0.37% or $0.1128/share to $30.23. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $25.60 and as high as $36.08. On average, 4781010 shares of BX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1064108.
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