Jarden agrees to buy Yankee Candle for $1.75B in cash

MADISON DEARBORN PARTNERS has agreed to sell Yankee Candle Co. to Jarden Corp. for $1.75 billion, six years after buying the nation's largest scented candle manufacturer for $1.4 billion. / COURTESY YANKEE CANDLE CO.
MADISON DEARBORN PARTNERS has agreed to sell Yankee Candle Co. to Jarden Corp. for $1.75 billion, six years after buying the nation's largest scented candle manufacturer for $1.4 billion. / COURTESY YANKEE CANDLE CO.

NEW YORK – Jarden Corp. agreed to buy Yankee Candle for $1.75 billion, making its biggest acquisition to add the 43-year-old scented candle maker to its collection of more than 120 consumer brands.

Jarden will use cash to acquire the largest U.S. scented candle company from a fund managed by private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, according to a statement Tuesday. The transaction is projected to boost Jarden’s adjusted earnings per share by about 10 percent. The company expects the deal to be completed in the fourth quarter.

The purchase may help Jarden, whose products range from Mr. Coffee machines to Health o meter scales, revive sales growth that last year slowed to 0.2 percent after increasing 11 percent in 2011. Madison Dearborn bought Yankee Candle, which sells items in more than 35,000 retail stores in North America, for about $1.4 billion in 2007.

Shares of Rye, N.Y.-based Jarden rose 6.3 percent to $45.65 at 9:57 a.m. in New York, after advancing as much as 8 percent for the biggest intraday gain since April 25. The company had increased 25 percent this year through Aug. 30.

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Jarden plans to expand Yankee Candle into new markets and geographies, according to slides posted on Jarden’s website. Less than 15 percent of Yankee Candle’s revenue is from outside the U.S., the slides show.

Sales at Yankee Candle rose 7.4 percent to $844.2 million last year as the company added stores to its distribution and selling network, according to a filing. Along with candles, South Deerfield, Mass.-based Yankee Candle makes potpourri and home decor.

The deal has a termination fee of $62.5 million if the purchase is canceled by Jarden.

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