Sun-Rype Products Ltd has received a proposal from Great Pacific Industries Inc. to take the company private in a deal valued at about C$37 million.
The Jim Pattison Group, which owns well known entertainment brands such as ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not!’ and ‘Guinness World Records’ already owns 54% of Sun-Rype’s common shares.
Under the proposal would receive C$7.50 cash for each Sun-Rype common share, a 30 percent premium over Friday closing price.
Jim Pattison is a Canadian billionaire and sole owner of The Jim Pattison Group, one of the country’s largest privately held companies. The group owns television and radio stations, car dealerships and grocery store chains, among a host of other businesses.
Shares of Kelowna, British Columbia-based Sun-Rype closed down about 5 percent at C$5.76 on the Toronto Stock Exchange
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Sun-Rype Products Ltd. (“Sun-Rype”) is western Canada’s largest manufacturer and marketer of fruit-based food and beverage products, including our flagship Blue Label 100% Pure Apple Juice and Fruit to Go 100% fruit snacks, with net sales of $147.5 million in 2011. Sun-Rype branded beverage products are sold nationally across Canada and branded food products are sold nationally across Canada and in selected regions of the United States. Sun-Rype’s primary manufacturing facility is based in the heart of British Columbia’s fruit growing district, supported by two facilities in Washington, located in the center of the largest apple growing region in the Pacific Northwest. The Sun-Rype brand is renowned for wholesome goodness and quality, and has been a trusted brand amongst generations of Canadian families for over 65 years.
The company was incorporated in the name of BC Fruit Processors Ltd. on May 13, 1946, and on April 2, 1959, the name of the company was changed to Sun-Rype Products Ltd. Sun-Rype was operated as a co-operative for over 40 years. In November 1996, Sun-Rype became a reporting issuer and the common shares are listed and traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “SRF”.