Frozen food company Birds Eye Foods Inc plans to raise up to $350 million in an initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing.

Birds Eye, which is majority owned by private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners, plans to use net proceeds from the IPO to pay down its debt, according to a prospectus filed on Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Rochester, New York company said in the filing it held the top position in the frozen vegetables market. It had sales of $935.6 million in the fiscal year ended in June 2009, up 7.8 percent from the year earlier, with a profit of $53.6 million.

The IPO will be managed by JP Morgan.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; editing by Carol Bishopric)

New York