Bangkok Bank, SCB to offer $1.5 billion loan for Thai Union's Bumble Bee buy

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bangkok Bank PCL <BBL.BK> and Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) <SCB.BK> will offer a $1.51 billion bridge loan to Thai Union Frozen Products <TUF.BK> to finance the purchase of U.S. tuna firm Bumble Bee Seafoods, executives from the two banks said.

"We are one of two lenders to support loan to Thai Union Frozen," Pimolpa Suntichok, executive vice president and head of corporate banking at SCB, told Reuters on Friday. The loan would be for up to one year, she added.

A senior executive at Bangkok Bank confirmed that Thailand's top lender would participate in providing the loan to Thai Union.

Thai Union, the world's largest canned tuna producer, said on Friday it has signed an agreement to acquire Bumble Bee for $1.51 billion from a private equity firm.

(Reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Simon Webb and Muralikumar Anantharaman)