Bounty Agro mulls IPO

MANILA, Philippines — Bounty Agro Ventures, Inc., which is part of the Bounty Fresh Group of Companies, may consider an initial public offering (IPO) as one of several options to create the best value for the company, according to its chairman Tennyson Chen.

“As part of prudent fiscal planning, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to improve and maximize shareholder value and there’s a variety of options, that may or may not include an IPO, depending on various factors over which we do not have any control,” Chen said.

The poultry firm is said to be exploring an IPO that may raise $400 million to $500 million, according to a Bloomberg report.

The report said the company is having discussions with potential advisers on its planned listing.

A first-time share sale could take place as early as the end of this year but deliberations are at an “early stage and Bounty could still opt not to proceed with the offering,” Bloomberg said.

Bounty Fresh was founded in the 1980s by Chen who started the business in a one-layer house in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, with an initial 5,000 heads of chicken.

From a 5,000-head layer farm, the business grew to be one of the largest broiler integrators in the country.

Today, it is the only fully-integrated poultry company that has continuously invested in company-owned facilities.

These include Grand Parent farm, Parent Stock farm, hatcheries, dressing plants, feed mills, and cool-cell broiler complexes in the Philippines.

Bounty Agro is the first company in the Philippines to put up a single-stage commercial broiler hatchery, a technology that ensures better hatchery sanitation with controlled ventilation that will in turn produce better chick quality.

To cater to the consumers in the various regions and islands of the archipelago, Bounty Agro Ventures Inc. (BAVI) was integrated to operate in several branches across the country.

In 2018, the poultry company founded by Chen, made a $309 million acquisition of the Tegel Group, New Zealand’s largest poultry producer.