Latin America’s biggest industrial baker, Grupo Bimbo, is extending its US presence with one of the biggest acquisitions in its history – it is acquiring the US operations of Canadian food giant George Weston Ltd., in a $2.38-billion, fully debt-financed transaction. Bimbo sells its products, ranging from pastries to peanuts, in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Bimbo will finance the Weston Foods purchase with long-term credit of $1.7 billion, in two tranches, and a $600 million bridge loan with a one-year maturity. Informing Reuters about the details, Treasurer Roberto Cejudo said the financing would be two-thirds denominated in pesos and the rest in dollars.

Bimbo’s move immediately prompted Moody’s Investors Service to place the company’s debt ratings on review for a possible downgrade. Earlier, Standard & Poor’s had also announced placing Bimbo debt under review.

The acquisition will complement Bimbo’s 2002 purchase of Weston’s breadmaking operations in the western US for $610 million. The latest transaction will bring the remaining of Weston’s US operations into the Bimbo fold - thereby giving Bimbo access to household icons as Entemann’s pastries, Orowheat bread and Thomas’ English Muffins, and other brands of breads, rolls, muffins and bagels.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter, subject to regulatory approval.

Chief Financial Officer, Guillermo Quiroz, told reporters on Wednesday that the company expects $7.5 billion in total sales for 2008 and $10 billion during 2009. Quiroz downplayed another major acquisition in the near term, saying: “We have eaten all we could eat and for a great while we will concentrate in digesting it.”