Petra Foods Buys Remaining Stake In Petra Armajaro

Petra Foods, a manufacturer and supplier of cocoa ingredients and branded consumer confectionery products, has acquired the 32% stake, which it did not own in Petra Armajaro from its joint venture partner Armajaro Holdings.

Petra Armajaro is the investment holding company of Petra Foods' European cocoa ingredients operations in Netherlands, Germany and France, which are collectively referred to as Delfi Cocoa Europe.

The acquisition cost of EUR9.4m for the 32% stake was arrived at on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis after taking into consideration the estimated net assets of Petra Armajaro and its subsidiaries as at December 31, 2009.

Armajaro said that it decided to exit its minority ownership in the European cocoa ingredients processing operations in order to focus on its core business of cocoa and coffee bean trading.

John Chuang, CEO of Petra Foods, said: “ We would like to thank Armajaro for the strong support it has provided, not only as a partner in the joint venture, but also as sourcing partner for out group's cocoa bean requirements. We have had a mutually rewarding partnership which began in March 2007 when the joint venture started, and we expect this close working relationship to continue.”

Mr Chuang added, “ The cocoa ingredients processing facility in Hamburg commenced commercial production in May last year and since then, we have ramped up production level to near maximum capacity, producing a range of high quality cocoa ingredients. We are pleased that our new facilities have received quality accreditations from Bureau Veritas (ISO 22000) and from many of our customers.”

The group has plans to finance the acquisition via internal resources and bank borrowings. The company said that the transaction does not have any material impact on the earnings per share of the group for the financial year 2009.