SET-listed food and beverages firm Malee Group has made a 65 percent stake acquisition in Long Quan Safe Food Joint Stock Company for 332 million baht (about US$10.5 million).
The acquisition is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2018 and comes as part of Malee’s strategy to tap into overseas market as it aims to become a health-driven global F&B firm by 2021.
“This will enhance our competitive advantage in serving the needs of middle-to-lower income consumers in the region,” said Malee’s senior vice president Opas Lopansri.
Long Quan Safe Food, otherwise known as LQSF is a major beverage producer in Vietnam. The company has been manufacturing and distributing consumer products such as water, carbonated soft drinks, and jelly drinks in cans.
Being in the business for 25 years, the company’s product has been well-accepted among customers in Vietnam and neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar.
“We are confident this acquisition will greatly benefit our international business, as we establish Long Quan Safety Food as a manufacturing hub serving mass-market consumers in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other key markets in the region,” added Lopansri.
Besides, LQSF’s integrated production which produces up to 300 liters of beverage per year will also increase its capacity to 630 million liters per year, strengthening its exports to neighboring and emerging market countries.
The deal will increase Malee’s production base for emerging markets in Southeast Asia, helping to drive the proportion of the company’s foreign revenue from the current 40 percent to 60 percent over the next three years.
“Malee Group has been establishing partnerships overseas over the past three years to tap the tremendous growth potential of the regional beverage market,” Opas said.
“For emerging markets, we have partnered with local companies that not only understand what consumers want, but also have strong distribution capabilities covering the majority of their respective markets.”
The company currently have joint ventures in the Philippines as Monde Malee Beverage Corp and in Indonesia as PT Kino Malee.
“By acquiring this stake in LQSF, we continue to utilize the strengths of our partners in each country to build a strong regional network, which will in turn allow use to strengthen the competitiveness of our joint ventures as part of our Asean strategy,” he added.
