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ublicly listed food company PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food (AISA) plans to allocate around US$80 million to expand its business to Vietnam and Malaysia this year, aiming to become a regional player in the industry.

AISA finance director Sjambiri Lioe said on Thursday that his firm planned to spend $40 million for expansion into each country.

'€œWe aim to acquire a stake of between 90 percent and 100 percent in a Vietnamese food company as well as a majority stake in a Malaysian food company,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.

The negotiations with the Vietnamese partner would likely be complete shortly, while the negotiations with the Malaysian firm was at an early stage, he went on.

Sjambiri declined to disclose the names of either company, saying only that one of the companies was a biscuit maker.

'€œShould the acquisition plans go as planned, we will sell the companies'€™ products on the Indonesian market besides maintaining market share in their countries of origin,'€ he said.

As well as allocating millions of dollars, AISA also plans to spend Rp 1 trillion ($79 million) on capital expenditure (capex) this year, up from Rp 676 billion last year.

The funds '€” for both capex and international expansion '€” would come from loans and internal cash in a proportion of around 60/40, respectively, Sjambiri said.

AISA will use its capex this year to finance business expansion in the domestic market, including venturing into new businesses and boosting its rice output.

The company will spend around Rp 40 billion preparing a factory in Central Java to produce foreign-branded beverages.

Sjambiri explained that his firm was currently in discussion with two foreign beverage companies to market their products in Indonesia'€™s growing market, in which AISA would play the role of beverage producer.

A number of things being thoroughly discussed were how to maintain prices amid currency volatility and who would bear the cost of promoting the products, he said.

'€œWe hope that we can come to an agreement with one of the beverage companies in the first quarter of this year,'€ he went on.

As well as spending its capex on the beverage business, AISA has previously stated that it will spend between Rp 500 billion and Rp 550 billion on building rice mills in East Java and South Sulawesi, increasing its rice output to around 720,000 tons per year.

The company is allocating Rp 150 billion of its capex to expand its plant producing Taro '€” its popular snack brand '€” in Central Java.

The remainder of the capex, meanwhile, will be used to expand its oil palm plantation by acquiring 8,000 hectares of land in Sumatra.

AISA currently has three business lines, namely food, rice and plantation. The firm plans to carry out an initial public offering for its rice subsidiary, Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Rice (TPS Rice).

'€œHowever, we are not in a rush for the IPO. We will wait for the right time, when TPS Rice'€™s valuation amounts to around Rp 10 trillion,'€ Sjambiri said.

According to its third-quarter financial report, AISA booked Rp 3.6 trillion in net sales during the first nine months of last year, a 24.1 percent increase from Rp 2.9 trillion in the same period in 2013.

The firm'€™s net profits surged by 14 percent to Rp 246.8 billion in the January-September period in 2014 from Rp 216.4 billion during the same period last year.

AISA'€™s shares were down slightly by 0.24 percent to Rp 2,060 at Thursday'€™s close from Rp 2,065 at the previous close.