Peruvian industrial fishing company and fishmeal and fish oil producer Exalmar has agreed to fully purchase fishing firm Pesquera Centinela, Exalmar reported to Peru’s securities regulator SMV.
The terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Exalmar said that the purchase “will allow in the future for the integration of teams and processes that complement each other, generating synergies and learning.” The closing of the sale will depend on the fulfillment of a series of conditions “usual in this type of transaction,” it added.
In the meantime, Pesquera Centinela will continue to operate the first fishing season of 2025 as usual.
The move is seen as a further consolidation of Peru’s anchovy fishery, following on the heels of the November 2024 announcement of New Brunswick, Canada-based aquaculture firm Cooke’s purchase of Peruvian fishmeal and fish oil producer Corporación Pesquera Inca (Copeinca).
According to Peru’s Production Ministry (PRODUCE), during the second anchovy fishery season of 2024, Exalmar had the third-highest participation in anchovy processing – at 18.2 percent of the established total allowable catch (TAC) of 2.5 million metric tons (MT). It was preceded by industrial anchovy fishing firms Tecnológica de Alimentos (TASA) at 23 percent total participation and Copeinca at 20.3 percent.
Exalmar exports about USD 200 million (EUR 176 million) a year, newspaper DF Sud reported, and Centinela sells about USD 60 million (EUR 52.9 million) a year, bringing the combined companies closer to market leader TASA, which sells about USD 300 million (EUR 265 million) annually.
In its latest results presentation, Exalmar said it accrued top line revenues of USD 456 million (EUR 402 million) for 2024, surging 79 percent from the previous year. The firm’s EBITDA jumped 322 percent to USD 103 million (EUR 90.8 million), with the company turning a 2024 profit of USD 30 million (EUR 26.4 million), compared to a net loss of USD 11.6 million (EUR 10.2 million) in 2023.
To complement Exalmar’s 22 fishing vessels, Centinela brings to the table a fleet of 11 vessels, three warehouses with total capacity of 3,556 MT, and three fishmeal and fish oil processing plants: one in Chimbote with a capacity of 135 MT per hour, another in Chancay with 60 MT per-hour capacity, and one in Tambo de Mora with 50 MT per-hour capacity. It also has its own laboratories, focused on quality control and traceability standards throughout its production chain.
Until the Exalmar purchase, Centinela was owned by Peruvian industrial conglomerate Grupo Romero, which has been implementing a reorganization strategy, consolidating its presence in sectors which it sees as having greater profitability potential while strengthening other key business areas. It also recently sold off agriculture company Agrícola del Chira to Guatemalan firm Ingenio Magdalena, and in March, it sold Peruvian fuel distributor Primax to Saudi Aramco for USD 3.5 billion (EUR 3.1 billion).
