Brazil's Hypermarcas Eyes US Companies

Hypermarcas(HYPE3.SA), one of Brazil’s largest consumer brand producers, gained for the fourth day in a row on Monday. It plans to issue new shares but did not disclose exactly how many or the price range for the prospected sale. It did day that it planned to use proceeds from the sale for new acquisitions. The Brazilian conglomerate bought five companies in 2009 and has grown by 2 billion reais in the last 9 months. The company specializes in beauty products, medicine, food and toiletries. It most likely takeover more companies in the next quarter. In early January, it was rumored that the Brazilian state bank would buy a minority share in Hypermarcas to assist the conglomerate in overseas takeovers. Possible takeover targets were an unnamed pharmaceutical company in the US, a chemical company also in the US and a European biotechnology company.