Thai Union Frozen to buy U.S. tuna firm Bumble Bee for $1.5 billion

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Union Frozen Products , the world's largest canned tuna producer, is buying U.S. tuna major Bumble Bee Seafoods for $1.5 billion from a private equity firm as part of a plan to double revenue to $8 billion by 2020 through overseas purchases.

Thai Union, which makes "Chicken of the Sea" brand tuna and counts Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Costco Wholesale Corp among its clients, said on Friday its biggest-ever purchase will give it North America's largest seafood brands like Bumble Bee, Brunswick and Sweet Sue.

The deal will boost revenue by a quarter and will be funded by domestic short-term loans, the company said in a statement. Thai Union Frozen's shares rose as much as 2.7 percent in early trading on Friday, before giving up the gains to be down 0.8 percent by 0400 GMT (11:00 p.m. EST).

The transaction is subject to approval from the United States antitrust authorities and is expected to completed in the second half of 2015, Thai Union said.

Bumble Bee is the third acquisition deal this year of Thai Union after it bought Norwegian seafood firm King Oscar and French smoked salmon supplier MerAlliance.

Thai Union has operated in the United States, the world's second largest seafood market, for over 17 years. The company has targeted $5 billion in sales next year versus an expected $4 billion this year.

"The deal is the largest acquisition in the history of our company and one of the most exciting external growth propositions," Thai Union's president and CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said in the statement.

Bumble Bee, the largest canned tuna and sardine producer in North America, is privately owned by a Pan-Atlantic private equity firm, Lion Capital. It has annual sales of about $1 billion and estimated EBITDA of $145 million in 2014.

UBS acted as adviser for Thai Union, while Morgan Stanley and Rothschild advised Bumble Bee.

Bangkok Bank PCL and Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) will offer one-year bridge loan to Thai Union to finance the purchase, executives from the two banks said.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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