Temptation Foods scrip soars on acquisition buzz

The company's scrip soared 21.29 per cent in the last one week and 40.49 per cent in the last one month. The food firm is expected to come out with a qualified institutional placement (QIP) in 10 days to fund its acquisition plans, say sources.  Six months ago, Temptation Foods Chairman and Managing Director Vinit Kumar had announced that the company would be raising $200 million to acquire three companies in the food processing space.  "One of those companies would be a listed company that we have been looking at for some time, which has almost Rs 30-40 crore bottomline. There are a couple of other assets that sit with some triple AAA fast moving consumer goods company that we are in discussions with," he had said in April.  The company spokesperson declined to comment. However, sources close to the development say that Temptation Foods is close to acquiring a general foods company, which also happens to own a very popular food brand.  Through these acquisitions, Temptation Foods is targeting a total turnover of Rs 1,400 crore by the end of this financial year and a bottomline in excess of Rs 100 crore.  Its turnover for the year till March was Rs 329.7 crore and net profit was Rs 23.8. About Rs 175 crore in the turnover was contributed by the marine business and Rs 10 crore by Everfresh, which the company had acquired from Chambal Fertilisers last year.  Temptation Foods had also done a QIP last year of Rs 114 crore. It had also bid of Hindustan Unilever's marine business and Marico's Sil last year but the talks fell through.  The main strategy of Temptation Foods, say analysts, is to ride on the boom India poses as a big outsourcing destination for meeting demand for processed foods in the West.  Today, processed food is one of the sunrise segments in the food space with increasing demand from urban areas. Rising nuclear families, dual incomes earned per family, changing food habits and consumer tastes, high disposable incomes would also lead to higher consumption of ready-to-eat food in India.