Thai Union Frozen Products Pcl, the world''s largest canned tuna producer, expects its 2011 net profit to rise 30% in line with sales growth, boosted by its acquisition of French-based MW Brands Holdings SAS.
TUF, owner of the Chicken of the Sea canned tuna brand, completed an $884 million (€672 million) deal to buy MW Brands, producer of the John West and Petit Navire brands, to become the world's biggest seafood firm in October.
"After the purchase of MW, we expect sales in dollar terms to rise 30% to almost $2.8 billion (€2.1 billion) next year. For net profit, it should grow at the same rate,” said TUF president Thiraphong Chansiri.
Thiraphong said he expected Thai Union's 2010 net profit to be close to 2009 and revenue in US dollar terms should rise about 10% this year. The company posted a nine-month net profit of THB 2.5 billion (€63.2 million/$83.1 million), down 4.3% on the year.
Thai Union, which counts WalMart and Cosco among its big buyers, expects sales to reach $4 billion (€3 billion) in 2015 as the acquisition of MW would boost Thai Union's tuna output to 500,000 tonnes a year from almost 400,000 tonnes, he said.
The deal will add four processing plants in France, Portugal, the Seychelles and Ghana to Thai Union's five facilities in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the United States.
Its fishing fleet will more than double to nine vessels from four.
In 2011, revenue from tuna should contribute up to 50% of Thai Union's sales versus 40% in the first nine month of 2010, Thiraphong said.
After the MW purchase, Europe will contribute 33% of total sales next year, up from 11%, while US sales will fall to 38% from 48%, he said.
Thai Union plans to spend THB 2.5 billion in 2011 to improve existing plants and foresees no major investment over the next few years.
