Saputo wins Australian takeover battle

Article Excerpt

SAPUTO INC. $53 (Toronto symbol SAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 194.3 million; Market cap: $10.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.saputo.com) now owns 78.9% of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, an Australian producer of milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products. It aims to purchase the remaining 21.1% in the next few weeks. Buying 100% of Warrnambool would cost Saputo around $590 million, including assumed debt. To put that in context, the company earned $144.1 million, or $0.73 a share, in its fiscal 2014 third quarter, which ended December 31, 2013. That’s up 10.8% from $130.0 million, or $0.65, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 30.1%, to $2.3 billion from $1.8 billion, mainly due to last year’s purchase of U.S. dairy-product maker Morningstar Foods. The company has a long history of absorbing new purchases, but relying on them for growth adds risk. Saputo is still a hold. hold…