The company's executive vice-president Alex Lo told the Financial Times that it is looking for acquisition targets in both China and India.
"We hope to become a US$5 billion company before 2008 and so far it looks as if we are in line with this target," he told the paper.
Uni-President, Taiwan's largest food conglomerate, is already the second branded foods maker in China after the noodle and beverages group Tingyi.
It has expanded aggressively in this rapidly growing market, buying stakes in five Chinese beverage companies since September 2004. Now it is believed to seeking private equity to allow it to get around restrictions by Taiwan's government on investing in China so that it can build further on its foothold in the market.
Expansion into the mainland is already evident in the Taiwan group's sales. Last year, Uni-President's sales in China surpassed those in Taiwan, estimated at T$35.8bn, for the first time.
And the potential for further growth is clear as higher purchasing power in China makes branded food and beverages increasingly attractive to consumers.
Uni-President rival Tingyi reported last week that its 2005 sales had grown 25.8 per cent to US$1.84 billion, with particularly strong growth in its beverages unit - up 46.5 per cent on the prior year.
Research by Datamonitor shows that Chinese soft drinks experienced a compound annual growth rate of 12.8 per cent between 1998 and 2003 and are forecast to grow 8.4 per cent in value to 2008. This compares with just 2.1 per cent growth expected each year in Japan, and 1.8 per cent in the US.
Lo, who runs Uni-President and is widely viewed as the successor of founder and chairman, Kao Chin-yen, told the Financial Times that south-east Asia would follow China in delivering double-digit growth rates for the firm, which will also push into the Indian market.
This would make it the only company in Asia with a comprehensive footprint in every important market in the region, he said.
Uni-President will "definitely seek to acquire an existing company" in India, Lo added, either in food manufacturing or retailing.
