Clearwater rebuffs Cooke’s acquisition offer

Clearwater Seafoods Income Fund on Tuesday announced that its board of trustees voted to decline Cooke Aquaculture’s bid to acquire the company.

After consulting with its financial and legal advisors, the board concluded that the New Brunswick farmed salmon company’s offer of CAD 3.50 “does not adequately reflect the value of the fund and its future prospects.”

At the time of the offer in mid-August, Cooke said it represents a 132 percent premium over the volume-weighted average price for shares in the 20 days leading up to 25 July. “Cooke believes that the proposed offer of CAD 3.50 represents a full and fair value for the [shareholders], which have not traded above CAD 2 since October 2008, and Clearwater has not paid any distributions to [shareholders] since January 2008.”

Cooke already holds a 20.2 percent stake in Nova Scotia-based Clearwater, and the offer was to acquire all of the fund’s issued and outstanding shares that it doesn’t already own.

Subscribe

Want seafood news sent to your inbox?

You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time. Diversified Communications | 121 Free Street, Portland, ME 04101 | +1 207-842-5500
None