Friday, April 8, 2016

Maple Leaf a takeover targe


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.