Marine Harvest has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire 48.5 percent of the shares in Morpol for NOK 937.6 million (USD 167.3 million, EUR 127 million). Marine Harvest plans to submit a mandatory offer for the remaining shares in Morpol.
Marine Harvest made an offer of NOK 11.50 (USD 2.05, EUR 1.56) per share to two investment companies owned by Morpol CEO Jerzy Malek — Friendmall and Bazmonta — and submitted the same offer for the remaining shares.
In addition, Marine Harvest has entered into agreements to purchase the technical services entity Euro-Industry for EUR 10 million (USD 13 million), 78.3 percent of the shares in the Polish sales company Epigon based on a 100 percent valuation of EUR 4.2 million (USD 5.5 million) and 100 percent of the shares in the processing company MK Delikatesy for EUR 2.5 million (USD 3.3 million).
Marine Harvest said it believes the transactions will streamline Morpol’s assets further, and hence be positive for its long term value creation.
“Morpol’s activities and large range of high quality products fit very well with Marine Harvest’s current processing business as well as our downstream strategy. Morpol has its main market in Germany, but sells into a total of 39 countries. Marine Harvest has very limited sales of smoked products in the German market today. A future integration with Morpol will hence offer complementary benefits to today’s Marine Harvest,” said Alf-Helge Aarskog, Marine Harvest CEO. “Morpol will give our innovation and product development a strong boost. A combined Morpol and Marine Harvest can develop even more innovative and delicious seafood products for the consumer market.”
