Faroe Islands-based salmon farming company Bakkafrost had spent many years looking for potential acquisitions of a manageable scale and location outside of the Faroe Islands before making its move on The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC), confirmed company COO Høgni Dahl Jakobsen.
This week, Bakkafrost completed the acquisition of 133,125,109 shares in SSC from majority shareholder Northern Link Ltd. for more than NOK 3.76 billion (USD 411.2 million, EUR 374 million). This transaction took its ownership in the Edinburgh, Scotland-based company up to 150,974,735 shares, or 77.8 percent.
“What we like about SSC is that they have a similar focus on high-quality salmon,” Jakobsen told SeafoodSource. “And the Scottish background is, in many ways, comparable with the Faroese, so there is a good cultural fit and there is a good fit with regards to the North Atlantic origin.”
Culture and quality are not the only reasons that Bakkafrost acquired SSC; the company was also a good fit logistically, Jakobsen said.
“We have of course been looking into the numbers as well, and we feel that we will be able to apply some of the best-practice from the Faroe Islands to the Scottish operation, and there are also some synergies from the Scottish operation which we expect to align with the Faroes,” Jakobsen said. “It’s a good fit. It has size and it has potential, which is appealing to us.”
In terms of synergies, Bakkafrost will be supplying its own feed to its Scottish farms, and Jakobsen believes the biology on these sites can also be improved by applying the experiences and expertise from the Faroese operations, particularly the focus on freshwater operations and increasing smolt size.
As for whether Bakkafrost has plans to make any further acquisitions outside of the Faroes, Jakobsen said, “You can never say never, but it’s important that we do this right. We will be focusing very hard on the operations in Scotland and the Faroes and generating all of the value we can on both sides.”
Images courtesy of Bakkafrost, The Scottish Salmon Company
