Alliance Select holds plan to buy Vietnam seafood firm

Canned tuna exporter Alliance Select Foods International Inc. has suspended plans to buy a Vietnamese seafood company. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Alliance Select said Monday that there are some “issues that need to be addressed by [Hiep Thanh Seafood Joint Stock Co.]." “They need to take corrective action before Alliance [thinks of] investing in the company, if at all," said Alliance Select, formerly Alliance Tuna International Inc. Earlier, Alliance Select said it was buying a majority stake of Hiep Thanh Group for $13.1 million. Hiep Thanh Group is Vietnam’s largest private rice milling company, and owns one of the few irrigated farms with fish farms and feed-mill processing facilities. Its subsidiary Seafood Joint Stock Co. exports pangasius, or cream dory fish, and is among the 10 largest exporters in Vietnam. Alliance Select, which has tuna canning facilities in Gen. Santos City in Mindanao and in Bitung North Sulawesi in Indonesia, is targeting consolidated revenues of $150 million this year. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV