THE Thai Union to Buy MWB in $884 Million Deal

Thai Union Frozen Products, a seafood exporter, said Thursday that it had agreed to buy MW Brands, a tuna canner, from Trilantic Capital Partners to form one of the world’s largest seafood companies. The deal values MW Brands at 680 million euros, or $884 million.
MWB controls brands like John West, Petit Navire, Hyacinthe Parmentier and Mareblu, while Thai Union owns Chicken of the Sea.
Thiraphong Chansiri, president of Thai Union, said the deal would give his Thailand-based company better access to supplies and end markets, double the fleet size, improve its position in tuna canning and create cost-saving synergies. MWB, with its headquarters in Paris, had sales of 448 million euros for the last fiscal year, Thai Union said.

Thai Union beat out a number of private equity firms including Blackstone Group, which advanced the most in the bidding, as well as Bolton Group, a tuna canner, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Once combined with MWB, Thai Union will have a total debt to Ebitda ratio of 4.25, the person said, asking to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

Thai Union shares fell 1.5 baht, or 3.14 percent, to 46.25 baht, or $1.43, in Bangkok on Wednesday.

Thai Union, which said the financing was fully arranged, used Morgan Stanley and Bualuang Securities as financial advisors, while Trilantic Capital Partners relied on UBS.

MW Brands had been in the hands of Trilantic, a private equity firm, since 2006, when it was bought from HJ Heinz.

Based in New York, Trilantic was once Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking, the buyout business of the failed investment bank. After its parent’s collapse, the unit was bought by Reinet Investments, run by the Rupert family of South Africa.