Spartan Stores, Nash Finch Complete Merger

(RTTNews) - Spartan Stores, Inc. (SPTN) and Nash Finch Co. (NAFC) said Tuesday that they have completed their merger.

Spartan Stores, Inc. will use the corporate name of SpartanNash Co., with the official name change to SpartanNash expected to become effective at the annual shareholders meeting in May 2014.

The combined company will continue to conduct business as Spartan Stores, Nash Finch and MDV in their respective markets.

The common stock of SpartanNash trades under the symbol "SPTN" on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange beginning Tuesday.

SpartanNash's Board of Directors includes seven directors from Spartan Stores' previous board and four directors from Nash Finch's previous board. Along with completing the merger, SpartanNash has changed its fiscal year end from the last Saturday in March to the Saturday closest to December 31. This date change results in a transition period with a 15-week third quarter this year versus a 16-week third quarter last year and a 39-week fiscal year ending December 28, 2013 versus a 52-week fiscal year ending March 30, 2013. About six weeks of Nash Finch's sales and earnings contributions will be included in Spartan's third quarter and fiscal year results.

The deal is expected to be accretive to earnings per share, excluding the one-time integration and transaction costs, in fiscal 2014 which will end on January 3, 2015.

The combined company also expects to consistently continue to return value to shareholders through a dividend which will initially be set at $0.48 per share on an annualized basis.

In July, Spartan Stores and Nash Finch announced a definitive merger agreement for the companies to combine in an all-stock merger valued at about $1.3 billion, including existing net debt at each company.