The Hindu Business Line : US agri major buys Prestige Foods' assets

IN its efforts to ensure a bigger presence in the country, the US agri-business giant Bunge, through its Indian subsidiary Gee Pee Ceval Proteins and Investment, has acquired the assets of Prestige Foods Ltd.

Bunge said the assets acquired included an oilseed processing unit with an integrated vegetable oil refinery and packaging facility. Located at Pitampur in Madhya Pradesh, the plant has a solvent extraction unit with processing capacity of 1,000 tonnes a day, a refinery of 150 tonnes a day and vanaspati capacity of 100 tonnes a day.

The acquisition is part of Bunge's continuing expansion in Indian oilseed processing market following its purchase of Hindustan Lever's edible oil business last month.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Davish Jain of Prestige Foods said it was just a bare asset sale and that his company would continue to operate the other plant located at Dewas which has a 1,000 tonnes per day solvent extraction capacity.

"We are downsizing our operations a bit and the asset sale will help us vacate debt," Mr Jain said adding that the company would continue to be in the extraction business. The asset sale committee of BIFR and IDBI had finalised the sale.

Prestige Foods was one of the earliest companies in the country to set up a solvent extraction plant for soyabean and later added vanaspati to the product range. However, the company turned sick in recent years.

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