Colombia’s Nutresa May Sell $300 Million of Shares as Soon as June

Grupo Nutresa SA, Colombia’s biggest food producer, plans to sell new shares as soon as June to fund acquisitions in the U.S. or Latin America, Chairman Carlos Enrique Piedrahita said.

The company, formerly known as Grupo Nacional de Chocolates, intends to sell as many as 25 million shares in the coming weeks, Piedrahita said in a telephone interview from his Medellin office today.

The issuance is expected to raise as much as $300 million, said Mauricio Restrepo del Toro, head of research at Bogota-based Bolsa y Renta, which is organizing the sale.

“It could be before the end of the first half,” Piedrahita said.

Nutresa is one of at least seven Colombian companies raising a record $3.7 billion through share sales this year as the country’s economy grows at the fastest rate since 2007 and it prepares to combine its stock market with Chile’s and Peru’s, said Cesar Cuervo, senior analyst at brokerage Correval SA.

“Our two goals with the share issuance are to give the company more resources to continue its expansion and to give more liquidity to Grupo Nutresa,” Piedrahita said.

More Acquisitions

After spending $132 million on acquisitions in the past year, Nutresa will use the share sale proceeds for additional potential purchases in meat, chocolate, cookies and ice cream in the U.S., Caribbean, Central America or Andean regions, Piedrahita said.

Nutresa is likely to have a more than 10 percent increase in 2011 sales, he said.

The company had 2010 consolidated sales of 4.5 trillion pesos ($2.5 billion), a 2.8 percent drop from the previous year. Shares have risen 4.7 percent in the past 12 months.

First quarter sales rose 12.6 percent to 1.15 trillion pesos, largely from increases in overseas sales after it bought U.S.based cookie maker Fehr Holdings LLC for $84 million and became majority shareholder in Bogota-based coffee exporter Industrias Aliadas SA for $8.9 million. 

Both deals were in the second half of 2010.

The company also purchased a 73 percent stake in the Dominican Republic’s largest ice cream maker, Helados Bon SA, for $38.7 million in February.

“We’ve made 15 acquisitions in the last decade,” Piedrahita said. “We want to continue our international expansion in our strategic region that ranges from the U.S. to Peru.”

Venezuela Sales

Revenue dropped last year after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez devalued the bolivar, Piedrahita said. Venezuela accounted for 7 percent of revenue last year, down from 14 percent in 2009.

The U.S. accounted for 9 percent of revenue, the most by country after Colombia.

This year’s first-quarter profit fell 17.1 percent to 57.6 billion pesos as the company’s margins were “squeezed by sky- high commodity prices” and heavy rains, said Andres Jimenez, head of international sales at Interbolsa SA, Colombia’s largest brokerage.

“They have to take it on the chin because nobody eats ice cream when it’s raining,” Jimenez said. “The rains also are impacting, coffee and cocoa production and logistics of the company.”

Nutresa changed its name from Grupo Nacional de Chocolates in March to reflect the company’s wider range of products, Piedrahita said.

Brand Names

The company has 44 businesses in 12 countries, exports to 74 countries, and has about 30,000 employees. Brands include Sun Valley and Lil’ Dutch Maid cookies, Pozuelo in Costa Rica and Compania Nacional de Chocolates in Colombia.

The annual record raised through share sales on Colombia’s bourse was $2.8 billion in 2007 on the initial public offering of Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest oil company, Correval’s Cuervo said.

The state-run Ecopetrol is to issue up to 10 percent of shares as early as this year in a proposal pending congressional approval.

The boards of Colombian and Peruvian stock exchanges approved plans to merge the two exchanges on April 28.

Trading is to begin on the Andean exchange, known as MILA, on May 30.