Maple Leaf Foods
Inc. and DuBreton are on a list of companies that BB&T Capital
says could be takeover targets this year.
Tyson and Hormel are
the most aggressive buyers, it says.
Tyson might be
shopping for investments in China and Hormel might be looking for
companies outside of the meat igndustry, it says.
Maple Leaf has
turned profitable, now that a long restructuring is over, involving
the sale of its Canada Bread, Shur Gain and Landmark Feeds, Rothsay
Concentrates, turkey farms and a turkey processing plant, the closure
of at least a dozen meat-packing and processing facilities and the
construction of a large meat-processing plant in Hamilton and a
distribution centre south of Guelph are done.
DuBreton has been
successfully expanding into the organic pork processing business from
its base in Quebec.
American
companies have made major takeovers in the Canadian meat industry,
such as Cargill’s purchase o Better Beef in Guelph, JBS USA’s
purchase of XL Beef of Alberta and
Cargill’s puchase of Cuddy Foods of London, Ont.
