Black River buys stake in ANI

Singapore-based Black River, a wholly owned subsidiary of Black River Capital Partners Fund (Food) LP, has acquired a minority stake in AgriNurture Inc. (ANI).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Vikings Asia Ventures BV—formerly Solveigh Philippines Agri Investments BV—has sold 50 million ANI shares through a block sale at P13.642 each or a total price of P682.1 million.

ANI president Antonio Tiu welcomed the investment, saying that Black River Food Fund acquired the shares sold by Vikings Asia.

In 2013, the asset management company was already an investor in ANI with an exposure of 30.92 percent. Black River Food Fund used to be owned by Cargill, the world’s biggest agriculture company. Prior to this, Black River bought a 28.11-percent stake in ANI in 2011.

ANI continues to boost its business, riding on the growing economy. The company reported a nearly 50-percent jump in net income from P48.98 million earned in the same period last year to P70.73 million in the first half of 2019.

Its consolidated attributable net income grew 255 percent from P9.08 million a year ago to P32.28 million. Meanwhile, consolidated sale of goods and services amounted to P2.4 billion during the same period, almost three times higher than the P846.31 million last year.

Of different businesses, Philippine operations contributed 47 percent while foreign operations accounted for 53 percent of consolidated sales.

Local distribution sales posted an increase of 29.45 percent from P48.01 million in 2018 to P62.15 million in 2019, mainly due to improvement in operations.

Similarly, the group’s export sales amounted to P1.01 billion, 1,610.96 percent higher compared to the same period in 2018.