Hoping to take advantage of soaring sugar prices, Yinmore Sugar Industry has renewed plans for a Hong Kong listing after Bright Foods Group acquired a majority stake in the firm for more than 800 million yuan (HK$907.04 million).
Yinmore, the biggest producer in the sugar-rich region of Yunnan province, intended to launch an initial public offering a year ago.
Chairman Li Jinquan said Yinmore's flotation was approved by Hong Kong regulators last summer, but it shelved the plan when the market collapsed in the global downturn.
'Now we have reactivated the procedure and are looking forward to an IPO very soon,' said Mr Li yesterday. 'Tying up with Bright Foods offers synergies that will translate into better value for potential investors.'
Shanghai-based Bright Foods is a dairy-to-supermarket conglomerate that controls one of the country's biggest sugar product distributors. Its distribution network sold 1.2 million tonnes of sugar products last year, or 10 per cent of domestic turnover.
Bright Foods bought 30 per cent of Yinmore shares from company management led by Li and another 30 per cent from Goldman Sachs. Goldman still held 5 per cent of Yinmore after the transaction, Mr Li said.
The two deals cost Bright Foods more than 800 million yuan, said Wang Zongnan, chairman of the state-owned Shanghai conglomerate. It also owns Bright Dairy, one of the country's top dairy brands.
