Boyz I was told that this one will be the one to watch. Chatting with a contact at BP Melbourne and he said that they may raise $100Mil to $120 mil but heaps of it goes to Overseas instos and and also Local Instos. Whats left will be for BP high trading clients on a massive scale back level as not much stock would be around. Apparently lots of deals were done and will be announced at the IPO and also run by IOOF Chairman Dr Roger Sexton and who is who of Cororates on the Board. Apparently expands very rapidly and everything will be under the company control i.e. Land, producing, packing, transport, selling, distribution etc. No 3rd party at all. Very advanced technology run firm I was told and will be seen as a massive growth stock also. I was shocked when he was going on and on about this float. So keep your eyes open around June/July lodgement. Don't expect to receive much allocation even if you trade a lot with Bell Potter. The board apparently controls who gets what etc. If any of you know anything about this company, kindly post so we can be ready. The rumour is they have done so many acquisitions to date which were not announced at all.
$100 million-plus IPO for Beston Global Food as it heads to ASX with lobster, dairy stakes
by Simon Evans
Beston Global Food Company is preparing to raise more than $100 million in an initial public offering after taking equity stakes in Australia's largest lobster business Ferguson Australia and biodynamic milk and yoghurt maker B.-d. Farm Paris Creek, as it builds a premium food export business.
The company has bolstered its board before the planned listing on the Australian Securities Exchange, with GrainCorp chairman Don Taylor agreeing to become a director. It has also set up four offices – in Vietnam, China, Thailand and Brunei – as it accelerates its strategy of capitalising on growing demand for premium foods in Asia, and then the Middle East.
The Beston business model revolves around a "closed loop" approach where the company will own farms and seafood quotas, run production facilities and also own stakes in the branded businesses involved in sales and marketing of the end product.
Beston Global Food Company chairman Dr Roger Sexton, who is also the chairman of the $3.1 billion ASX-listed financial services business IOOF, said the business will also be using specialised electronic technology seals called Brandlok on its products, enabling the integrity of the entire supply chain to be tracked by consumers.
"You can track and trace everything," he said on Wednesday.
The company is aiming to list on the ASX by early July and is expected to have annual revenues of more than $100 million. It will operate in four main product categories – dairy, seafood, health food, and meat and poultry.
"The theme is very much clean and green produce out of Australia," Dr Sexton said.
"The plan is to list early in the third quarter of the year."
Bell Potter is the lead manager of the initial public offering. The size of the raising is still being finalised depending on other potential merger and acquisition activity in the wings, and is likely to be $100 million to $120 million.
Beston Global Food Company has appointed Sean Ebert as its chief executive. He was previously head of mergers and acquisitions with the mining and engineering group Worley Parsons.
Dr Sexton declined to be specific on the size of the equity stakes in the two most well-known branded businesses, Ferguson Australia and Paris Creek, but said they were substantial stakes. The group also has amassed interests in a health-food business and in meat and poultry producers.
Fergsuon Australia is the the largest live lobster exporter in Australia and overseas sales make up about 90 per cent of its business. It runs a large processing factory in the western Adelaide suburb of Hendon and its fishing grounds are in the waters off Kangaroo Island. The majority holding will continue to be owned by the Ferguson family, which has been running the business for three generations.
The biodynamic dairy group Paris Creek is based in the Adelaide Hills and produces a range of high-end premium milk, yoghurt and flavoured milk. The products are stocked in some Woolworths, Coles and IGA supermarkets in the more-affluent suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, and are sold widely in the firm's home market of South Australia.
Paris Creek has been built up by Ulli and Helmut Spranz, and they will maintain a majority holding.
Dr Sexton said Beston Global Food Company intended to have the attributes of a growth stock and a yield stock and would pay dividends.
He has a solid track record in capitalising on long-term trends, having bought up a range of vineyard assets in the 1990s that listed on the ASX in 1999 as the Beston Wine Industry Trust, which was subsequently acquired by Challenger Ltd and is now part of the sprawling business empire of one of Asia's richest people, Li Ka-shing. Beston Global Food has also appointed former Santos and Elders chairman Stephen Gerlach to its board.
