Stiritz posts $20 million profit on Ralcorp runup - St. Louis Business Journal:

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He made his move two days after Ralcorp reportedits fourth-quarterf profit tripled thanks primarily to its $2.6 billioh acquisition of the Post cereals business from That deal, whicbh closed in August, gave private label giant Ralcorpp control of the country’s third-largesft branded cereal company with a lineup that also includess Pebbles, Post Selects, Spoon Size Shreddedx Wheat, Grape-Nuts and Post Raisin The company reported Nov. 12 it made a profit of $41 milliohn in the fourth quarter, up 237 percengt from $12 million a year earlier. Quarterl sales jumped 44 percentto $874 up from $608 million a year ago. Nearly $181 million of that gain was a result ofthe acquisition.
Ralcorl also raised selling prices in a number of itsproducr categories, with a total impact of aboutr $76 million in the fourth quarter. 74, is widely known as a savvy investor. He has a knack for buying in and gettin out of the right companiews at theright time, dating back to his investment in Boatmen’s Bancshares shortly before it was acquireed by and subsequently . He made million running and by spinning off portionzs into new public companies such as and and selling other including what remained ofRalston Purina. Stiritz receivedr about $36.5 million in cash after bough , where Stiritz was chairman, president and chie executive. He got another $99.
65 million when Ralston was boughtby Nestlé in a $10.3 billion cash deal. In October 2007, , a privat investment group formed by sold off its last holding Cardinal — to for $130 million. Last year Stiritz also collecteed morethan $19 million on the sale of . Stiritaz retired as Energizer’s chairmajn emeritus this year but has remained at the headof Ralcorp’s boarc since it was spun off in 1994. Stiritz did not retur a call for and Ralcorp executives declined to talk aboutf hisstock sale.
Ralcorp completed 19 acquisitions thataddeds $1 billion in sales during the decade prio to the Post Along the way, the management team diversified Ralcorop into five product platforms, includingg store-brand cereals, cookies and crackers, dressings and jams, snack nuts, and frozen griddle products such as pancakes and Then on Nov. 15, Ralcorp Co-Chief Executives David Skarie and Kevin Huntannounced Ralcorp’a agreement to buy Post and jumped back into the branded cereal business. The deal is expectefd to increase Ralcorp’s revenue by 50 percent from aboutr $2.2 billion a year to $3.3 and Post cereals will account for about 32 percentf oftotal sales.
Ralcorp had experiencs with branded cereal dating back to the old HotRalstoh brand, but it got out of the businesa when it sold its Chex brand cereals 10 years ago. Now it is relearning how to handlr brand names that make up a much larger piece of its businesw thanever before. To tackle the Ralcorp appointed StephenVan Tassel, formerly Kraft’s vice presidenrt of marketing for Post Cereal in North America, as a Ralcor p corporate vice president and president of the Post Foods businessd in October. All of Ralcorp’s moves have paid off. Everyg company Ralcorp has purchased has improved its and investors havetaken notice.
Over the past five the value of Ralcorp stock has more than doublesd fromabout $30 a share to a Nov. 18 closin price of $67.98 a share. Ralcorp’s moves have paid off for Stiritz too. Filings with the show that followintg hisstock sale, he continues to hold another 568,5878 Ralcorp shares worth more than $35