Deals this week: AB Mauri Food, YuanShengTai Dairy, Henan Kedi Dairy

US-based yeast and bakery ingredient maker AB Mauri Food has agreed to acquire the business and assets of Specialty Blending in order to strengthen its North American bakery ingredients business.

Also based in the US, the target company produces bakery mixes.

Allen & Overy LLP is the legal adviser to AB Mauri Food for the transaction, which is expected to be completed by March.

Chinese dairy farming company YuanShengTai Dairy Farm has agreed upon a private placement of more than 781 million shares at a price of HK$0.5 ($0.06) a share with Freeman Securities as placement agent.

The placement will raise gross proceeds of HK$390.5m ($50.35m), which the company intends to use for importing heifers and calves from Australia and New Zealand, as well as for general working capital purposes.

China-based Henan Kedi Dairy has completed the private placement of more than 29 million shares at a price of CNY13.20 ($1.90) a share to raise net proceeds of CNY378.93m ($54.54m).

Dutch investment firm Heuvelrug Participaties has reportedly acquired a majority stake in Profish Food.

The target company supplies fresh, pre-packed fish products to the retail, hospitality and institutional buyers.

Macquarie Emerging Markets Asian Trading (MEMAT), a Singapore-based fund managed by Macquarie Group, has sold a 2.36% stake in Parag Milk Foods to Mauritius-based New Horizon Opportunities Master Fund.

Based in India, the target company produces dairy goods. The transaction involved acquisition of roughly 1.9 million shares of Parag Milk for a total consideration of approximately Rs5.03bn ($7.4m).

MEMAT holds a 0.3% stake in Parag Milk following the transaction.

Swiss chocolate and cocoa producer Barry Callebaut has acquired a Mondelez International production facility in Belgium, with an agreement to supply an additional 30,000t of liquid chocolate a year to the seller.

Located in Halle, the facility has been integrated into Barry Callebaut’s manufacturing network.

Thai meat explorer Charoen Pokphand Foods and Poland-based food company SuperDrob Capital Group have signed a co-operation agreement that will enable them to expand production capacities, as well as integrate production and logistics facilities.

Marel Poultry has secured a contract from Maelor Foods to supply a 13,500 birds an hour poultry processing plant to the latter’s new poultry processing plant in Wrexham, UK.

The plant is being built on the site of a former cheese dairy plant owned by First Milk.