Tate & Lyle sells Vietnamese sugar business
The sale to Vietnam firm TH Milk Food Joint Stock Company marks a step change in Tate’s business strategy over the last year, as it moves away from bulk- to industrial- and speciality ingredients and seeks to pay down net debt (£462m in December 2010).
A Tate & Lyle spokesman told FoodNavigator.com: “We exited the [£1bn] EU sugar processing business last July, and got out of molasses last November.”
He added that the sugar exit strategy was consistent wit ceo Javed Ahmed’s three-pronged strategy to “focus, fix and grow” existing non-core businesses.
“Tate has a presence in Vietnam since 1936, and it has been the most successful agri-business in the country. All Tate's sales in Vietnam were sugar (it employed around 500 staff) so it doesn’t have a presence there now.”
