HK Fund Buys 13% Of Alliance Tunaff

From The Daily Inquirer

Hong Kong-based Victory Fund Ltd. has acquired 13 percent of fish company Alliance Tuna International Inc. for P128 million, according to data from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The data showed that shares of Alliance Tuna were sold Jan. 6 through a block sale of 100 million shares at P1.60 each. Of that volume, 80 million shares, or 13 percent, were sold to Victory Fund by a number of local investors.

Ownership of the remaining 20 million shares could not be traced as of late Wednesday.

“They believe in our strategy of embracing globalization, our global sales and new products and acquisitions to leverage on our already formidable market coverage,” Alliance Tuna president Jonathan Dee said of the buyer.

He added that the new investor found Alliance Tuna's five-year compounded annual growth of 26 percent to be "very steady" and expected it to move up to 30 percent this year.

Alliance Tuna shares closed Wednesday at P1.60, from P1.58 Tuesday.

The company also said in a separate disclosure Wednesday that it had sealed its acquisition of Prime Foods New Zealand, the second-largest smoked salmon processor in New Zealand, and had completed due diligence study for a possible investment of NZ$1.3 million.

It said Dee signed an investment agreement with Prime Foods New Zealand on Tuesday.

Alliance Tuna is Thai-Filipino joint venture and is a “private label manufacturer” of canned tuna, as it processes and cans tuna under its clients' brands.

Its primary product is canned tuna in institutional and retail-pack can sizes. It processes byproducts and scraps into fishmeal for sale to Philippine feed millers.

In January-September 2008 it recorded export sales of $17.84 million of the institutional pack and $18.897 million of the retail pack. Local sale of fish meal contributed $2.23 million.

Last year, the company disclosed that it is pursuing a majority stake in Prime Foods New Zealand for roughly P115 million, which it said would boost its bid to expand into Oceania, which includes Australia, the Malay archipelago, Melanesia, Micronesia, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Prime Foods New Zealand would be Alliance Tuna's second acquisition in less than six months after assets of a tuna cannery in Indonesia.

Prime Foods New Zealand has manufactured and sold smoked seafood, including hot-smoked, cold-smoked and marinated salmon since 1994. It has since grown into one of the largest retail suppliers of smoked seafood in New Zealand, with a market share of 35 percent

Under the investment agreement, Alliance Tuna will acquire “50 percent plus one” of Prime Foods New Zealand in two tranches. The first tranche of roughly NZ$650,000 is to be done immediately and the second, worth NZ$500,000, later within the year.

Alliance Tuna also plans to make a loan of NZ$150,000 to Prime Foods New Zealand, which will earn interest at market rates after the first year.

Also under the agreement, Alliance Tuna and Prime Foods New Zealand plan to form a joint venture company, 51 percent of which will be owned Alliance Tuna. The joint venture will engage in processing and export of salmon worldwide, except to New Zealand, which will continue to be served by Prime Foods New Zealand.

Alliance Tuna is one of the firms which are listed in the Atuna Stock Index – click here to go to the Stock Index