Alliance Tuna wants to buy Vietnam food processing firm

Alliance Tuna International Inc., a publicly listed manufacturer of canned fish, wants to broaden its product portfolio by acquiring majority interest in the food processing company Hiep Thanh Seafood of Vietnam. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Alliance Tuna said that it has signed a memorandum of agreement with Hiep Thanh Seafood for a 90-day due diligence with a view to buying a 50-percent-plus-one-share stake in the Vietnamese firm for about $13.1 million. From the proceeds of the transaction, Hiep Thanh Seafood will use $10.5 million to buyout some of the current shareholders and to retire debt, with the balance funding company’s capital expenditures. Hiep Thanh Seafood, a member of the Hiep Thanh Group — Vietnam’s largest rice milling company — is an exporter of processed pangasius, also known as creamy dory or cobbler fish. Pangasius is gaining global popularity as a premier source of economically priced white meat, according to Alliance Tuna. The company intends to use its marketing and distribution channels, as well as its direct access to major supermarket chains around the world for Pangasius products. This would help increase the profitability of Hiep Thanh Seafood, Alliance Tuna said in its disclosure. As a majority stakeholder in the Vietnamese company, Alliance Tuna expected its investments to grow in terms of earnings and shareholder value. Last year, Alliance Tuna acquired a majority stake in Prime Foods New Zealand Ltd., New Zealand’s second largest processing company for salmon. Alliance Tuna has manufacturing and sales facilities in the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Thailand. —VS, GMANews.TV