Ebro Foods to Expand International Rice Business
Spanish food group Ebro Foods is in negotiations to acquire Australian rice producer SunRice for an enterprise value of A$600m (Eur425m). Based in New South Wales and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, SunRice sells approximately 500,000 tons per annum of branded rice foods principally through the retail channel and has leading positions in its main markets including Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the Middle East and California/Hawaii in the US.
For the year ended April 31st 2010, SunRice reported EBITDA of A$56m. Ebro Foods expects SunRice to generate EBITDA of approximately A$70m in the year ending April 2011. It is anticipated that the transaction will be completed in March 2011. Ebro recently sold its dairy business to Lactalis of France for Eur630m to concentrate on developing its core rice and other food activities.
