Alliance Select hikes stake in Indonesian tuna company

FISH PROCESSOR Alliance Select Foods International, Inc. has moved to hike its stake in its Indonesian canned tuna subsidiary to near 100% amid the company’s ongoing international expansion plans, a disclosure to the local course showed yesterday.

Alliance Select purchased 500,000 PT International Alliance Foods Indonesia (IAFI) shares from fishing firm PT Wailan Pratama for $500,000, increasing the listed firm’s stake in IAFI to 99.98% from 89.98%, the disclosure stated.

“Alliance Select feels that Indonesia will play a crucial role in the company’s future growth and profitability. The country is extremely rich in marine resources and full control of IAFI will enable it to better plan production schedules and sales strategy to tap additional export markets around the globe,” the firm said.

The share purchase is expected to be approved by the Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board and the Department of Law and Human Rights “in the next few days” in accordance to Indonesian law, the disclosure added.

This comes as the company is looking to expand its presence in the Asian region this year.

Last November, Alliance Select said it was looking to begin shipping salmon to South Korea this year via subsidiary Big Glory Bay Salmon and Seafood Co. to service demand from large supermarket chains.

Salmon product exports are also being eyed to markets like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, China, and Malaysia, as salmon and tuna sales are expected to contribute to a double-digit revenue growth for the company this year, an earlier report said.

Alliance Select, formerly Alliance Tuna International, Inc., was incorporated in 2003 and began commercial operations in General Santos City in 2004, engaging in tuna processing, canning, and the export of canned tuna products to Europe and North America.

It is registered with the Trade department’s Board of Investments as a new canned tuna exporter and operates a General Santos City plant with a rated production capacity of 140 metric tons per day.

The company booked a comprehensive loss for the January to September last year amounting to $959,455, reversing a net profit of $766,549 in 2010 levels on the back of acquisition expenses.

Revenues dipped by 3.03% to $32.02 million from P33.48 million, while manufacturing and sales costs fell by 6.90% to $27.55 million versus P29.85 million, year-on-year, according to its latest financial statement.

It expects to swing to profit for the second half last year on the back of a 5 to 6% sales boost due to healthy revenues from holiday sales, the company earlier said.

Shares of Alliance Select declined by 0.69% to P1.44 yesterday from P1.45 on Wednesday.

-Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente Businessworld