Alliance Tuna Plans To Hike Exportsff

Philippine canned tuna exporter Alliance Tuna International plans to broaden its reach in the global market and aims to raise its export market to 60 countries from the current 40 countries in the next 12 months. 

Alliance Tuna president Jonathan Dee said after the signing of the firm’s initial public offering underwriting agreement that they plan to penetrate non-traditional markets such as countries in Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe.

“There are actually 100 countries that import canned tuna but we will first get a good foothold and expand sales volumes in our target markets over the next year before exploring more countries,” Dee said. Dee said the expected hike in export volumes with the entry into these new markets can easily be handled by their existing cannery which has a capacity of 120 tons per day. He said current production rate is at 80 to 100 tons a day.

ATII sells around 1.5 million cases of canned tuna products a year, just one percent of the global market of 150 million cases. It operates its facilities in Cagayan de Oro.

Alliance Tuna expects sales to grow by 16.73 percent this year to P1.5 billion from P1.285 billion in 2005. Full-year sales volume is seen growing

26 percent to 820 container vans compared with 651 last year.

As of September this year, ATII said sales already reached P1.275 billion while sales volume hit 656 container vans.

For 2007, sales are seen to grow further to P2.08 billion on sales volume of 1,000 container vans. ATII reported a net income of P55 million last year, slightly lower than the P57 million profit posted in 2004. Gross profit, meanwhile, amounted to P130 million as against P125 million a year ago.

Alliance Tuna, a joint venture between Filipino and Thai investors, is selling 134 million shares to the public at P1.35 each to finance working capital requirements (P49.89 million), repay debts and acquire equipment (P61.8 million).

The offered shares represent 25 percent of the company’s post-offer capital. The offer price is 10.3 times the company’s earnings forecast this year.

The offering will run from Oct. 23 to 30 while the listing of the shares has been set on Nov. 8.

ATII corporate secretary Erlinda Calangi said the company’s decision to list at the PSE instead of Thailand reinforces its strong confidence in the Philippine economy.

Abacus Capital & Investment Corp. is the lead issue manager and underwriter for the offering.