Thai Union Frozen Products Public Company Limited (“TUF”), Thailand’s leading processor and exporter of canned and frozen seafood products, successfully placed a series of bonds to a group of institutional and high net worth investors to prepay part of its existing loans which should help reduce its funding costs, reflecting strong investor confidence in its business and operations.
Mr Thiraphong Chansiri, president of TUF, said that it issued debentures of 3-year, 5-year and 10-year maturity which were assigned A+ rating from TRIS Rating. Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited, Kasikorn Bank Public Company Limited and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited ( Bangkok Branch), were appointed as the Joint Lead Underwriters for such debentures.
Mr Thiraphong added “This is the first time for TUF to issue such a large amount of debentures as well as with the longest tenor. Despite the rising interest rate trend from expected higher inflation, investors still show high confidence in TUF witnessed by a strong response and excessive investor demand on the book-building day when the issues were 1.7 times oversubscribed. We, therefore, decided to increase the issuance size from our initial plan of THB 4,500 million to THB 6,750 milllion”
TUF believes that the success of this debenture placement is a result of investors’ confidence in its business which has shown strong operating performance and is fully integrated from sourcing thru packaging and distribution. Currently, TUF is the largest canned tuna processor in the world and the No. 1 seafood processor in Asia (excluding Japan) in terms of sales value. Recently, TUF has acquired MW Brands which owns leading canned seafood brands in Europe which helps the firm to expand its business rapidly in the European market. Together with TUF”s existing market-leading brand, “Chicken of the Sea”, in North America, TUF has further strengthened its global brand portfolio.
Source: TUF Company Announcement
