PSE okays P272-M stock rights offer of Alliance Select

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed Alliance Select Foods International Inc. has obtained the Philippine Stock Exchange’s nod to raise P272 million from a stock rights offering.

The offering involves 272.27 million shares to be sold to shareholders at P1 each, equivalent to a 33.25 percent discount to the volume-weighted average price of Alliance’s common shares for the 15-day trading period ending June 8.

Each eligible shareholder can buy one share for every 2.2 common shares held as of June 29. The rights offering will run from July 4 to 8.

Alliance intends to use net proceeds from the offer to fund the acquisition of Massachusetts-based salmon smoking firm Spence & Co. Ltd. as well as pay down short-term obligations to Amalgamated Investment Bancorp.

Other proceeds will be used to support working capital requirements.

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

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 the leading supermarket chains across the US. These projects are marketed under the Spence brand as well as the house brands of these supermarkets.

Alliance’s third smoked salmon venture will help it establish beachhead in the lucrative seafood market in the US.

The company 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 and 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.

Alliance 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.

The firm also 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.