Marine Harvest, the Norwegian salmon specialist, has entered into a deal that will see it merge its Chilean business with local seafood group AquaChile.
The combined entity will operate under the AquaChile umbrella, with shares in the group trading on the Santiago stock exchange.
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Under the deal, Marine Harvest will hold 42.8% of the enlarged group. The company will have the option of increasing its stake to “a minimum” of 55% from June 2016. The price in such a tender offer will be the higher of US$0.8856 per share and the prevailing stock market price.
Following completion, the Chilean business is expected to have a production capacity of approximately 260,000 tons GWT of salmon and 25,000 tons WFE of tilapia. In 2014, AquaChile and Marine Harvest Chile had a combined production of 165,000 tons GWT of salmon and 19,000 tons WFE of tilapia.
Marine Harvest chairman Ole-Eirik Lerøy said the move was “in line” with Marine Harvest’s strategy of “forming a world leading integrated protein group”.
He continued: “Our already strong position within salmon farming in Chile will be further strengthened and the combination of these excellent companies will form a very efficient Chilean entity that also will benefit the entire Chilean industry from a sustainability point of view. The board believes that such a strategy will provide significant operational benefits, as well as improving and stabilising the long term earnings for the group.”
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By GlobalDataIn a separate announcement, Marine Harvest revealed a drop in fourth quarter operating profit. The company said EBIT fell to approximately NOK990m, down from NOK1.03bn in the comparable period of last year. The result was hit by an operating loss per kilogram of minus NOK3.4 at its operations in Scotland. Full results will be released on 4 February.
