Bergen, Norway-headquartered Marine Harvest has announced an agreement to buy assets of the former Chilean farming company Acuinova Chile S.A., a bankrupt subsidiary of Pescanova’s Pesca Chile. The operation has capacity to produce about 40,000 tons of head on gutted (HOG) fish per annum, primarily Atlantic salmon.
The asset purchase includes a hatchery, a smolt facility, 36 seawater licences and a primary and secondary processing facility, all located in Chile’s Region XI. The biomass included in the deal is expected to generate a harvest volume of about 15,000 tons HOG in 2015.
The agreed purchase price is US$ 120 million. Closing of the transaction is expected during the fourth quarter of 2014, and the deal is subject to confirmation following due diligence and approval from relevant competition authorities as well as other customary approvals for such transactions.
During the last years, Marine Harvest Chile has left its comprehensive portfolio of assets in Region XI dormant and focused all production in Region X. The acquired assets will provide the company with the “necessary comfort on zone control and on-shore infrastructure to commence sustainable production in the region,” according to a statement issued to the press.
Alf-Helge Aarskog, chief executive officer of Marine Harvest, regards the acquisition as “an important step in forming a lasting sustainable production framework in the Chilean farming industry.”
It will also provide the world’s largest salmon farming company the means to increase production in an area not affected by Russia’s ban on food imports. Fish exports to Russia from Marine Harvest’s farms in Norway, the EU and Canada have been blocked since August 6. That is when President Vladimir Putin imposed a year-long prohibition on all food and agricultural imports from nations that have imposed economic sanctions against his country as a result of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its support of rebels fighting Ukrainian government troops.
Not long after the embargo went into effect, CEO Aarskog commented: “I’m confident that Marine Harvest is well positioned to optimize under the short term challenges arising from the Russian sanctions, due to our global presence, sales contract hedging and high degree of financial flexibility.”
