Ebro Foods to buy SunRice for €425 million
22 Oct 2010
Spanish food processing major and a world leader in rice sector Ebro Foods SA and Australia's Ricegrowers Limited (SunRice) has agreed to negotiate a possible 100-per cent acquisition of SunRice by the former for an enterprise value of approximately A$600 million (€425 million).
Ebro proposes to pay A$50,000 per A-class share of SunRice, while B-class shareholders of the company will be paid A$5.025 per share and 60.3 cents franking credit, SunRice said in a statement.
The enterprise value of the deal is approximately A$600 million, valuing the equity of SunRice at A$315 million.
The board of SunRice said that it would recommend its shareholders to accept Ebro's unsolicited offer and vote in its favour, in the absence of a superior proposal.
New South Wales-based SunRice is a supplier of high quality and branded rice products to around 60 countries worldwide. The company operates state-of-the-art processing facilities in the US, the Middle East, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands for rice milling, packing, manufacture of rice cake and speciality rice foods.
It's stock is listed on Australia's National Stock Exchange (NSX).
SunRice sells approximately 500,000 tonnes of rice products annually under its popular brands SunRice, SunWhite, Always Fresh, CopRice, Harvest and Tumbles etc.