Canadian seafood company Clearwater Seafoods has made a bid to purchase Macduff Shellfish Group for GBP 98.4 million (USD 150.9 million, EUR 133 million).
Clearwater has negotiated the agreement with the Beaton family and Change Capital Partners, Macduff’s current owners. The purchase price includes GBP 4 million (USD million, EUR million) in seasonal working capital debt.
“The transaction will allow Clearwater to integrate its vessel management and sustainable harvesting practices, innovative processing technologies along with its global sales, marketing and distribution footprint into Macduff; a company that already possesses a talented local management team, excellent resource assets and a strong presence in the EU,” said Clearwater Seafoods CEO Ian Smith.
Both companies said the acquisition will allow for expansion of their existing business into new regions.
"This deal is great news for our operations in the UK, bringing investment and access to new markets within an extremely successful and respected business,” said Euan Beaton, president at Macduff Shellfish. “It provides learning and development opportunities for our staff as we share best practice with Clearwater and it gives fishermen access to more markets.”
Clearwater will buy Macduff with GBP 71.4 million (USD 109.5 million, EUR 96.4 million) in cash and the remainder via an unsecured deferred consideration obligation. Clearwater will finance the cash portion of the acquisition from existing loan facilities.
There are pending regulatory approvals. The company expects to close on the transaction on 30 October.
