Tasty Bite Eatables spurts after parent firm enters into strategic pact with Japan's Kagome

Tasty Bite Eatables was locked at 20% upper circuit at Rs 770 at 12:36 IST on BSE after the company said that its parent firm Preferred Brands International Inc. has entered into a strategic investment with a leading Japanese food company, Kagome.

The announcement was made during market hours today, 15 April 2015.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 54.33 points or 0.19% at 28,990.11.

On BSE, so far 679 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 655 shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a low of Rs 715 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 828.25 on 16 February 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 223.95 on 13 May 2014.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 13 April 2015, advancing 2.68% compared with Sensex's 1.9% rise. The scrip had, however, underperformed the market in past one quarter, declining 5.63% as against Sensex's 5.9% rise.

The small-cap company has equity capital of Rs 2.57 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Under the terms of the transaction approved by the board of directors of Preferred Brands International Inc. (PBI) and Kagome Co. (Kagome), Kagome will hold a majority stake in PBI while providing an exit to PBI's private equity investors. The founders of PBI will continue to own a significant stake in the company and continue to run the business from its headquarters in Stamford CT, USA. Ashok Vasudevan will remain Chairman of Tasty Bite Eatables (TBEL) and Masahiro 'Sean' Sumitomo Managing Executive Officer of Kagome will join the board of TBEL in India and serve as the Co-Chairman of the present PBI.

As part of the transaction, Kagome along with PBI announced an open offer to the public shareholders of TBEL to acquire 6.61 lakh shares, representing 25.78% of the fully diluted voting equity share capital of TBEL. The open offer price was fixed at Rs 655.57 per share.

Kagome was founded in 1899 as the first grower of tomatoes in Japan. With revenues of nearly $2 billion, it is Japan's leading manufacturer of condiments, tomato products, vegetable juices & other vegetable based products.

TBEL's net profit jumped 126.7% to Rs 2.29 crore on 4.2% growth in net sales to Rs 38.19 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q3 December 2013.

TBIL makes a range of sauces and formed frozen products to leaders in the food service industry.

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