Icelandic Group on Thursday announced that its board has retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch to act as its exclusive financial advisor as the company reviews its strategy for the future, including selling off parts of the company.
The company cited Merrill Lynch’s “extensive” experience providing financial advice to seafood companies worldwide as its reason for selecting the Bank of America Corp. subsidiary.
In early February, Icelandic CEO Finnbogi Baldvinsson and two other company executives stepped down after talks between Icelandic’s pension fund owners and German private equity fund Triton Partners to unload the company’s U.S. and Asian operations broke down. Icelandic then opened up negotiations, with the intention to sell off its U.S. and Asian operations separately. Canada’s High Liner Foods is among the companies interested in acquiring the operations.
Icelandic Chairman Brynjólfur Bjarnason immediately stepped in as the company’s CEO and leads a new executive management team.
