SET-listed Thai Union Frozen Products Plc (TUF) has announced it spent a combined 3.45 billion baht to acquire European fresh and canned seafood producers MerAlliance SAS and King Oscar AS last year.
The world's top exporter of canned and frozen tuna and shrimp paid 1.62 billion baht for 100% of shares in France's MerAlliance, a producer of smoked salmon, it said in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) yesterday.
TUF also paid 1.83 billion baht to acquire all the shares in King Oscar, a Norwegian sardine producer.
Both of these acquisitions have allowed TUF to enter premium markets in the EU.
TUF is also in talks to acquire California-based Bumble Bee Foods in a deal worth US$1.5 billion.
It would be TUF's biggest deal to date and make the company a major seafood player in North America, particularly in Canada, where TUF now has no presence.
A deal is expected to be completed in the second half of this year, pending approval by US antitrust authorities and other closing conditions.
President and chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri said the deals would help TUF to achieve its revenue targets of $5 billion this year and $8 billion in 2020.
Those goals are a far cry from the $1 million in revenue made by TUF during its first year in 1977.
The company has focused on mergers and acquisitions in recent years in pursuit of its strategy to have a global presence.
TUF began penetrating foreign markets in 1997 with its takeover of Chicken of the Sea, the third-biggest canned tuna brand in the US.
TUF shares closed yesterday on the SET at 22.10 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 152 million baht.