BREAKING NEWS: Thai Union Buys MW Brands For EUR 680 Millionff

By Atuna

Thai Union Frozen Products’ (TUF) board of directors announced yesterday the confirmation of the MW Brands acquisition from Trilantic Capital Partners for a final amount of EUR 680 million.

TUF will acquire 100% of MW Brands for the enterprise value mentioned above, payable in cash. According to the company, financing for the acquisition has been fully secured. “The transaction is subject to shareholders' approval and anti-trust review from the relevant authorities” affirmed TUF. Completion of the Transaction is conditional on approval from the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on September 2, 2010 and competition clearance. The Company is expecting to be engaged in the transaction within November 30, 2010.   

TUF will engage in long-term loan contract with 3 leading domestic financial institutions for the total of EUR 358 million - such loans will have maturities of 6 and 8 years respectively - and will engage in long-term loan contract with 4 leading foreign financial institutions in the amount of EUR 340 million, maturing in 6 and 7 years, respectively.

The acquisition will total 31,367,000 shares or 100% of the total shares of MW Brands as at July 27, 2010 and a maximum number of 417,517 additional shares of MW Brands to be issued upon exercise of stock-option granted by MW Brands.

After the successful completion of the transaction, TUF's tuna processing capacity will amount to half a million tons of whole round fish making the combined group one of the largest canned tuna producers in the world. Based on sales, TUF will be among the largest seafood companies in the world. In addition, TUF will become one of the few truly global and vertically integrated seafood players with sales, production, and leading brands across Asia, the US, and Europe. TUF believes that the new acquisition will increase Europe's contribution to TUF's total sales from 11% percent to more than one third.

Mr. Thiraphong Chansiri, president of TUF, said, "MW Brands represents a transformational opportunity for TUF to consolidate its strength in the global ambient seafood market. In addition, we believe the combination of these two highly complementary businesses will unlock synergies and create a leading global seafood company with broader sources of supply and end-markets. The investment will add four processing plants in France, Portugal, Seychelles and Ghana to our existing five processing facilities in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the USA. Our fishing fleet will also double in size from 4 to 9 vessels significantly improving our vertical integration and strategic access to tuna raw material. In addition to diversification of our end-market and production bases, MW Brands's strong European footprint will also provide us with further business opportunities in the future through a strong customer base, distribution, and brand leadership. We look forward to welcoming the employees of MW Brands into the Thai Union Group."

MW Brands is one of the European leaders in tuna and other ambient seafood products through its iconic brands - John West, Petit Navire, Hyacinthe Parmentier and Mareblu - and holds leading market positions in France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands and Italy. MW Brands is currently owned by Trilantic Capital Partners ("Trilantic"), a leading international private equity group. Trilantic acquired MWB through a carve out of various entities from the US food producer HJ Heinz in 2006. For the latest fiscal year ended March 31, 2010, MW Brands generated sales of EUR 448 million. The book value of its total assets was EUR 559 million.