Dutch food and nutrition company Nutreco and Sweden’s Stolt-Nielsen have said they plan to merge their worldwide fish farming, processing and marketing and sales operations into a stand-alone, independently financed new business entity.


After the merger Nutreco will hold a 75% stake and Stolt-Nielsen 25% in what the companies say will be the world’s largest aquaculture company.


The new company will be named Marine Harvest and will have annual sales of approximately €1bn (US$1.2bn) in salmon, salmon trout and other farmed fish and will have a range of products including species such as cod, halibut, sturgeon, tilapia, barramundi and yellowtail.


Marine Harvest will employ over 6,000 employees and will be headed by Hans den Bieman, currently chief operating officer of Nutreco Aquaculture. He and his staff will be based in the Netherlands.


The transaction is expected to be closed in the first half of 2005.

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Oslo, Norway-based Stolt Sea Farm Holdings has farming operations in Australia, Canada, Chile, Norway, Scotland and Spain. Stolt-Nielsen will retain its turbot and bluefin tuna operations. Nutreco’s current Marine Harvest organisation, based in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, has production operations in Australia, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Japan, Norway and Scotland.

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