FOOD

Bumble Bee Seafoods of San Diego, the nation’s second-largest tuna canner, has been acquired by International Home Foods of New Jersey for $163 million cash and assumption of about $25 million in liabilities. The deal was announced simultaneously with the canner’s filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The seller was Unicord Public Co. of Thailand, which acquired Bumble Bee in 1989 from Pillsbury, a unit of Grand Metropolitan. Of the canner’s 3,000 employees, about 250 are located in the Santa Fe Springs canning facility and 100 in the San Diego corporate offices. No layoffs are planned, although the San Diego offices may be moved, said financial advisor Lloyd Greif of Greif & Co. of Los Angeles. Bumble Bee’s other canning plants are located in Manta, Ecuador, and Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. International Home Foods is a unit of Dallas investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc.