Report: Hostess Brands Could Soon Hit Block For $1.5 Billion

Hostess brands could soon be up for sale a year after a pair of private equity investors acquired the cake-maker out of bankruptcy last year for $410,000.

Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulos are preparing to ask $1.5 billion for the Irving, Texas-based purveyor of Twinkies and other snack brands, according to a report Wednesday in the New York Post.

The 68-year-old Metropoulos recently sold Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer brand for $700 million to private equity investor TSG Consumer Partners. Metropoulous paid $250 million in 2010 for Pabst.

Hostess sought protection from creditors in 2012 and under new management has since sold off a raft of related brands including Wonder Bread, Devil Dogs and Yodels.

New owners fired 18,000 Hostess workers, shut eight factories and outsourced deliveries. The company is now producing $175 million in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to the Post.

The Post said Hostess' market share has fallen to 12.9 percent from 18 percent prior to its bankruptcy.