RP tuna canner to list shares in Singapore, HK

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Philbest Canning Corp., one of 43 subsidiaries of the fast-rising RD Group of Co. and a member of the elite Top 1000 corporations in the Philippines, is stepping up the groundwork for its plan to list its shares in Singapore and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

"We could do it sooner, but I think we will be very prepared to do the listing in two years time," said Ritche C. Rivera, chief operating officer of RD Group and president of Philbest.

Rivera said that as part of preparation for the planned international listing of Philbest, the company has acquired the International Food Safety (IFS) certification from international food safety certifying bodies such as the World Health Organization and Codex Alimentarius of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

At the same time, Philbest is also expecting to get by next month, its ISO 9001 certification which would make it the first tuna cannery in the country to acquire this certification.

The RD Group which purchased the tuna cannery from RFM Tuna Corp. in 2001 and renamed it Philbest, managed to turn around the losing company, reversing the P41-million loss during that year to post a remarkable net profit of P73 million in 2003.

Today, the company is the second biggest tuna cannery and biggest exporter in the Philippines with gross sales of P3.2 billion in 2005.

It has a daily capacity of processing 120 metric tons (MT) of tuna, mainly skipjack and yellowfin which is exporter to the US, European Union, Middle East and Japan.

In the local market, the company has introduced its tuna products in recent years, and these are sold under the brand names Dolly, Diana and Philbest.

"We are already very strong in the international market, but we decided to go into the local market where we think we could introduce quality options for consumers at lower prices," said Rivera, noting that its products are about P2 prices lower than the top-known tuna brand in the domestic market.

This year, Rivera said Philbest will be more aggressive in its marketing campaign in the local market.

In a related development, the RD Group also recently entered into a $2.8-million tuna joint venture with Indonesia’s PT Anugerah Bahari Utama.

RD which has an 80 percent equity in the joint venture, acquired a stake in a tuna cannery run by PT Anugerah. In return, the Philippine company can have continued access to Indonesia’s tuna-rich fishing grounds.