Following a month-long push to purchase all the outstanding shares of Havfisk and Norway Seafoods Group it didn’t already own, Lerøy Seafoods has upped its ownership in both companies by a sizeable amount.
In June 2016, Lerøy announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Havfisk, the largest trawler company in Norway, and in Norway Seafoods, one of Europe’s largest whitefish processing, sales and distribution companies. The deal triggered a legal clause requiring Lerøy to make a mandatory offer to purchase all remaining shares of Havfisk and a voluntary offer to purchase the remaining shares of Norway Seafoods.
Between 16 September and 17 October, 2016, Lerøy purchased 23,350,627 shares of Havfisk, representing 27.59 percent of the company’s total shares. The company paid NOK 36.50 (EUR 3.94, USD 4.46) for Havfisk, representing a total outlay of about NOK 852 million (USD105 million, EUR 95 million). Lerøy now owns 81,042,784 shares of Havfisk, representing 95.74 of the company’s total shares.
Owning more than 90 percent of the company will give Lerøy the right to initiate a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares of the company, giving it the ability to fully take over control of Havfisk.
In addition, in the past month, Lerøy purchased 5,942,415 additional shares of Norway Seafoods at NOK 1 (EUR 0.11, USD 0.12) per share, constituting 7.01 per cent of the total shares in the company. Lerøy now owns 68,235,669 shares in Norway Seafoods, representing 80.50 percent of the company’s shares.
