ViSalus Founders Agree To Buy Most Of The Company; Blyth Will Retain 10% Stake

(RTTNews) - Blyth Inc (BTH), a direct to consumer marketing company, Tuesday that it and the founders and certain other preferred stockholders of its ViSalus network marketing subsidiary have reached an agreement in principle whereby the founders and those other preferred stockholders will exchange their shares of Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock of ViSalus for shares of ViSalus Common Stock.

Presently, Blyth has an 80.9% ownership interest in ViSalus and ViSalus's founders and its other preferred stockholders own the remaining 19.1%.

The exchange of ViSalus Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock for ViSalus Common Stock will dilute Blyth's ownership of ViSalus to about 10% and increase the ownership interest of ViSalus's founders and other stockholders to approximately 90%.

In addition, the transaction will extinguish the obligation of ViSalus to redeem the ViSalus Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock on December 31, 2017 for an aggregate price of $143.2 million which obligation is presently guaranteed by Blyth.

Commenting on the transaction, Robert Goergen, Jr., Blyth's CEO, said, "We are delighted to be embarking on a transaction that will not only better position ViSalus to undertake the important business initiatives necessary to grow its business, but will also allow Blyth to retain an investment in the health and wellness category which we continue to believe holds significant potential for future growth."