Grocer C&S Lines Up Debt Deal for $1.8 Billion SpartanNash Buy

C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. is lining up a $400 million debt financing to support its $1.77 billion acquisition of food distributor SpartanNash Co., according to people familiar with the transaction.

Wells Fargo & Co. is sounding out investors in the US leveraged-loan market, and a deal could launch later this month, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Executive Chairman Rick Cohen, whose family co-founded C&S in 1918, contributed some $900 million in equity toward the purchase of SpartanNash, said some of the people.

A representative for C&S said the company does not comment on financial ...