Jakarta firm offers to buy out $584m China Minzhong Food

Anthoni Salim, chief executive officer of PT Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Tbk. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A company controlled by Indonesian billionaire Anthoni Salim offered to acquire the rest of China Minzhong Food Corp in a deal valuing the Chinese company at S$786 million ($584 million).

The deal could help the tycoon exercise greater control over a food empire spanning potato chips, instant noodles and cooking oil. Full ownership of Minzhong Food could also make it easier to sell it off.

Marvellous Glory Holdings Ltd offered S$1.20 in cash for each share in Minzhong Food, according to a filing in Singapore, where Minzhong Food is listed.

That's 25 percent more than the stock's last closing price. Investors can choose an alternative in the form of cash and exchangeable bonds under terms in the offer. Shares of the Chinese vegetable-processing company jumped 17 percent to S$1.12 in Singapore on Wednesday.

The deal makes sense for Minzhong Food's largest shareholder, Salim's Indofood Sukses Makmur, according to Syaiful Adrian, an analyst at Ciptadana Sekuritas. A buyout would allow Minzhong Food, which reported a third decline in annual profit for the year ended June 30, to be removed from Indofood's books.

"Minzhong Food has been weighing on Indofood," Adrian said by telephone from Jakarta. "Indofood could also use the proceeds from the (possible) sale (of Minzhong Food) to repay some of its foreign-currency debts and reduce the exchange-rate risk on the company."

Indofood had total foreign-currency debt of about $1.1 billion as of June, or about half of its 28.6 trillion rupiah ($2.2 billion) in liabilities, according to the company's financial report.

Minzhong Food will be delisted if the Marvellous/Indofood offer goes through, according to the document.

Salim has a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His First Pacific Co, through Jakarta-listed Indofood, owns 82.88 percent of Minzhong Food. Salim has a combined direct and indirect interest of about 45.11% in Hong Kong-listed First Pacific, the filing dated Sept 6 showed.

The offer requires preconditions to be met, including approval from independent shareholders of Indofood and First Pacific for the Jakarta-based company to sell its stake in Minzhong Food. Salim will be required to abstain from voting on the resolution, according to the document.

The offer is also contingent on the acquirer gaining acceptances for shares carrying more than 50 percent of voting rights, the document showed.

Minzhong Food said the proposal would allow "greater control and management flexibility" in implementing "strategic initiatives," according to the filing.

A takeout of Minzhong Food would add to more than a dozen delistings announced in Singapore with a combined market value of S$4.5 billion in the first half of 2016 alone, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"Valuations have been beaten down so there is a lot of incentive to take them private," said Jeremy Teong, an analyst at Phillip Securities in Singapore.

Bloomberg