The owners of the Santiago, Chile-based seafood firm Blumar have canceled a proposed sale of the company.
According to a financial disclosure sent to the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF) by Blumar General Manager Gerardo Balbontín Fox, a disagreement between the two major ownership groups – the Las Urbinas Group and the Sarquis Group – resulted in the cancellation of the sale.
“[They] have communicated to the company their decision to terminate with this date the competitive sale process of all the shares of Blumar S.A. … because they did not agree on the terms of the assignment entrusted to the bank of investment that would lead this sales process,” Balbontín Fox said in the statement.
The proposed sale was initiated by the Las Urbinas Group moving to divest from the aquaculture sector in April 2019. The exit agreement between the controlling parties mandated all privately-held shares of the company be put up for sale.
However, the parties did not reach a consensus on the parameters of the sale process, which were to have been finalized 30 days after the April announcement.
Blumar has been extending its reach and production as Chile’s salmon industry moves through a phase of consolidation. The company purchased Chilean coho producer Salmones Ice Val for USD 51 million (EUR 44.6 million) in January 2019, also increased its share of a fishmeal and oil processor in October 2018. And it is in the process of building a new USD 30 million (EUR 26.3 million) hatchery in the south of Chile. The company also owns and operates a fleet fishing for cuttlefish and horse mackerel in coastal Chile.
Blumar’s stock price closed at CLP 340 (USD 0.47, EUR 0.42) on 2 August, down 1.45 percent on the day. The stock has risen from a price of CLP 209 (USD 0.29, EUR 0.26) over the past year.
Photo courtesy of Blumar
