Alliance Select gets 90% Philexim guarantee cover for $4.5-M loan

Manila, Philippines - Alliance Select Foods International Inc., the leading canned tuna manufacturer in the country, has signed an agreement with Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency (Philexim) for a 90 percent guarantee cover on principal for a $4.5-million term loan.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Alliance Select said the state guarantee is for a term of a seven-years inclusive of one year grace period on principal and is applicable for funds raised through local financial institutions.

The company said it would use the money to partially fund the acquisition of Spence & Co., a US-based processor of smoked fish, for $8.5 million. It earlier said it was planning to conduct a stock rights offering to cover the purchase of Spence.

Located in Brockton Massachusetts, Spence was formed in 1990 and has established itself as a leading processor of premium quality smoked seafood. The company’s products are available in leading supermarket chains across the US. These projects are marketed under the Spence brand as well as the house brands of these supermarkets.

The company’s third smoked salmon venture will help it establish beachhead in the lucrative seafood market in the US, Alliance Select said.

Alliance Select is engaged in tuna processing, canning and exporting of canned tuna products with facilities in Gen. Santos City in Mindanao and in Bitung, in the island of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It exports to Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and South America, and is a private label manufacturer of canned tuna and processes tuna cans using its customers’ brands.

It also processes the by-products and scraps from its tuna processing operations into fishmeal, which it sells to Philippine and foreign feed millers.

The company has a marketing representative office in Bangkok, Thailand to tap the network of buyers and brokers who use Thailand as a base to buy canned tuna.

Alliance Select has a 40 percent stake in FDCP Inc., a can-making company, which ensures the availability of quality cans at competitive prices and sustainable supply.