Thai Union Acquires MW Brands

Thai Union Frozen Products has acquired MW Brands from Trilantic Capital, the former buy-out arm of Lehman Brothers, for €680m ($883m).

The company’s takeover price is 8.2 times MW’s 2010 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, with the asking price understood to be about €600m ($783m).

Thai Union, which posted a net profit of THB3.34bn ($103m) in 2009, expects MW to take the company’s European profits from 11% of total revenue to more than a third.

In 2006 Trilantic bought MW from the US food group Heinz for €425m ($555m), including debt.

Under Trilantic’s ownership, MW increased profits by about 50%, partly due to cost savings from factory closures in France.