Los Fiordos and Aquachile buy up biomass
The number of names on Chile’s salmon farming roster is to be reduced after the announcement of two deals together worth more than US$500 million.
Los Fiordos, the salmon farming arm of Agrosuper, is to buy the assets related to Salmones Friosur, Piscícola Hornopirén and Salmones Frioaysén, for US$229m (subject to a biomass adjustment at the close).
And Aquachile has signed a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Edén for an approximate value of US$255m.
Both deals are subject to approval by competition authorities.
Los Fiordos’ purchase includes fish farms located in Hornopirén, 40 maritime concessions distributed mainly in the Aysén region, assets destined for production operations, and respective biomass. The deal ensures employment continuity of the workers linked to the operation.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
Los Fiordos said that to date it is not possible to determine the financial effects that the transaction may have on the assets, liabilities or results of Agrosuper.
Family-owned Friosur put its salmon farming division up for sale in January, with the objective of concentrating on its fishing business.
Aquachile’s purchase of Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Edén includes all the assets used by both those companies in their current operation to produce salmon, both in freshwater and seawater, Aquachile said in a press release.
Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Eden have 26 sea concessions located in the Magallanes region, a recirculation fish farm with ample capacity and a processing plant in Puerto Natales, which allows them to concentrate all their operations in the region. In 2017, they produced 22,900 tonnes of Atlantic salmon and have the potential to reach over 40,000 tonnes in the medium term.
“This acquisition is a big step for our company, since it allows us to enter the Magallanes region with the appropriate scale, with assets with a very good production and health record, and with a first-class human team, thus increasing the geographic diversification of our business and, in the process, making it possible to make better use of the concessions we already have in that region,” said Agustín Ugalde, general manager of Empresas Aquachile SA.
“We are convinced that Magallanes has all the conditions to ensure the sustainable development of aquaculture in the southern part of our country."
Aquachile has an expected production for this year (before this transaction) of 110,000 tons of Atlantic salmon, coho salmon, rainbow trout and tilapia.
