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Thai Union Group Plc (TU), the world’s leading canned tuna producer, has filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for listing of its 100% owned pet care subsidiary – I-Tail Corp Plc (ITC), among the top 10 pet food makers in the world.
ITC, which has a paid-up capital of 360 million baht as per the TU’s website, would see a sale of 660 million shares to the public with 600 million new shares being issued and 60 million existing shares being sold.
The sale of 660 million shares, would represents no more than 22% of the total issued and paid-up shares. ITC would be listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the lead financial adviser to the deal is Finansia Syrus Securities.
ITC is a major pet food producer and exporter, and a leading original equipment manufacturer business (OEM) in producing cat and dog food in Thailand, and also the No. 2 pet food producer in Asia and one of the top 10 pet food producers in the world.
Thai Union, which has been expanding and listing its various subsidiaries recently listed its feed mill business in October 2021. The shares of Thai Union Feedmill Plc (TFM) currently trades at 10.70 baht a share against the IPO price of 13.50 baht per share.
Thai Union’s pet care business was setup in 1977, then, in 2021, the company was renamed from Songkla Canning to ITC, with ITC being the company producing and selling pet food products. The firm recently also expanded tap the market in the United States and currently has a portfolio of over 4,600 premium pet food products in 45 countries around the world covering both pet food producing for the world’s leading pet food brands, and for brands under the i-Tail Corporation Plc which are Bellotta, Marvo, ChangeTer, Calico Bay and Paramount.
Fund Raising
The purposes of this fundraising are as follows:
- Use as investment money in expanding production capacity to improve the efficiency of the production and expanding the infrastructure to support the production including modernizing the factory with automatic systems and machines and modernizing the warehouse with automated warehousing and labeling system.
- Use in expanding both domestic and international businesses.
- Use to pay off debts in order to reduce the burden of financial costs.
- Use as working capital for business operations.
As part of the fund-raising ITC will offer no more than 132 million ordinary shares for sale to the TU’s existing shareholders, only for those who are entitled to the allotment of the newly issued ordinary shares according to the TU’s shareholding proportion to maintain their pre-emptive rights.
As of now, the ITC has a registered capital of 3,000 million baht, 2,400 million of that is paid-up capital with TU holding 99.78% of the shares, and after the IPO TU’s proportion will be reduced to 77.82%, but TU will still remain a major shareholder and provide support for the ITC as a subsidiary of the group as before.
Results
As for revenues, ITC was able to generate average annual sales growth of 15% over the period of 2018 to 2021. The group’s revenues grew from 10.96 billion baht in 2018 to 14.53 billion baht in 2021, which is higher than the global pet food market compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% in the past 5 years (2016-2021), and its net profit has grown from 1.69 billion baht in 2019 to 2,721 million baht in 2021, in other words, 27% per year on average.
ITC has a dividend payout policy of not paying less than 50% of the profits to the shareholders.