Hormel to buy Unilever's Skippy peanut butter

Hormel Foods Corp , the maker of Spam canned ham, said it will acquire the Skippy peanut butter business from Unilever Plc for about $700 million to expand its non-meat business.

The Skippy brand, launched in 1932, will modestly add to Hormel's fiscal 2013 results and add between 13 and 17 cents per share to 2014 earnings, the company said.

"(Skippy) allows us to grow our branded presence in the center of the store with a non-meat protein product and it reinforces our balanced portfolio," said Hormel Chief Executive Jeffrey Ettinger.

The deal includes Unilever's Skippy manufacturing facilities in Little Rock, Arkansas and Weifang, China, Unilever said.

Barclays is serving as exclusive financial adviser to Hormel.

Shares of the company closed at $32.01 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)