New markets to enrich these food producers

Article Excerpt

Saputo and Maple Leaf Foods continue to rely on acquisitions to expand. While those moves expand their product lines, continually integrating new operations adds risk. SAPUTO INC. $43 (Toronto symbol SAP; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 386.7 million; Market cap: $16.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.saputo.com) is Canada’s largest producer of dairy products, including milk, butter and cheese. It also operates dairies in the U.S., Australia and Argentina. The company has completed 24 acquisitions of other firms in the past 20 years. It’s particularly interested in dairy producers outside of Canada. That’s due to limited opportunities to expand in this country’s highly regulated dairy market. For example, it recently agreed to buy Australian dairy producer Murray Goulburn Co-Operative Co. Limited. It operates 11 facilities in Australia and China and has annual revenue of $2.5 billion. That business looks like a good fit with the company’s existing Warrnambool dairy operations in Australia; it acquired that firm…