Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is one of five meat-packing companies
on a list of targets for takeovers this year, a list prepared by BB&T
Capital Markets analyst Brett Hundley.
He notes that Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson Foods have both said
they are shopping for takeovers.
The other four takeover targets he lists are Oscar Mayer,
AdvancePierre, BEF Foods and the
packaged meats division of Smithfield Foods.
“We think it (Maple Leaf) could be more important for
Pilgrim’s Pride to acquire this company, relative to Tyson Foods,” Hundley
wrote.
He noted that Maple Leaf’s goal for 2015 is to boost margins
to 10 per cent. It’s revenues this year will be about $3 billion.
Maple Leaf is having difficulty managing the transition from
plants it’s closing, including the huge Schneider Corp. plant in Kitchener, to
its new facility in Hamilton.
The Kitchener plant was scheduled to close at the end of
this year, but now the company says it will continue to operate until the end
of March.
