URC takes full control of JV with Calbee

Gokongwei-led Universal Robina Corp. is taking full control of Calbee-Universal Robina Corp. (CURC), a four-year-old snack food venture with Japan’s largest snack food company Calbee Inc.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, URC said it had signed an agreement to buy 50 percent of CURC from Calbee, raising its stake to 100 percent.

URC had agreed to buying 32.7 million shares at P5.217 a share or for a total of P170.6 million. This was based on the company’s net book value as of end-September.

“The purchase will allow URC to have full control of CURC, consistent with its agenda of driving an aligned and scalable snacking category growth,” URC said.

URC has agreed to pay the consideration in full.

Notwithstanding the signing of the share purchase agreement, Calbee agreed to enter into a licensing agreement with URC, which means that the snack food firm will continue to produce Calbee-branded products for the local market.

“The licensing agreement will further promote URC’s agility and nimbleness both in decision-making and in day-to-day business transactions,” the disclosure said.

CURC was incorporated in 2014 as an equally shared joint venture between URC, a company established under Philippines laws and Calbee.

When this new snack food company was set up, the goal was to grow this into a P2-billion enterprise in terms of annual net sales by 2020.

Tokyo-based Calbee is the largest snack food company in Japan, with a 53.6 percent share of the Japanese snack food market.