Aker Seafood expands into Spain

Pesquera Ancora S.L. has fishing rights in the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) and Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) areas and owns close to 24 per cent of the Spanish quotas in NEAFC. In 2007 this amounts to more than 2,300 tons of cod quotas round weight, which corresponds to approximately three Norwegian trawl cod licences. The company also controls 23.8 per cent of the shares in Faeroe Seafood, which operates trawlers and five processing plants in the Faeroe Islands. - Pesquera Ancora has long traditions in delivering fish to demanding customers in Spain, which is one of the largest seafood markets in Europe, and hence will provide Aker Seafoods with an excellent distribution channel into this important seafood market serving it with high quality salted, frozen and fresh products, says Yngve Myhre, CEO - Aker Seafoods ASA. Fish landing in Norway With the transaction, Aker Seafoods has also secured permits to land EU fish in transit to its Båtsfjord and Mehamn plants in Northern Norway. This opens up opportunities for increased activity in this region and in Denmark. Transaction details The transaction, which will be executed through Aker Seafoods Denmark A/S, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aker Seafoods ASA, entails the company acquiring 60 per cent of the shares in Pesquera Ancora S.L. The existing owner of Pesquera Ancora, Transpesca S.A., will continue to own 40 per cent of the shares in the company. - The purchase price for 60 per cent of the shares is EUR 11.5 million, and with no debt this gives an enterprise value of EUR 19.2 million. This price corresponds to the price Aker Seafoods has recently paid for similar vessels and quotas in Norway, says Myhre. Aker Seafoods and Transpesca share an ambition to continue to develop and increase the activity in Pesquera Ancora. The corporate and operating structure of the Spanish activities will continue after Aker Seafoods` acquisition, and the vessels in Pesquera Ancora and in Aker Seafoods will be able to benefit from each other`s experience and skills. Furthermore, the Spanish vessels will continue to have Vigo as their home port, fly the Spanish flag and they will be manned by Spanish fishermen. - It`s important for us to be able to integrate the Spanish vessels into the operations and control routines of Aker Seafoods. Our aim is to equip the Spanish vessels with the same advanced electronic catch log as our other trawlers as soon as practically possible. This will ensure efficient operation of the trawler fleet as a whole, and enable Norwegian authorities to receive detailed catch data on an ongoing basis also from the Spanish trawlers, says Yngve Myhre. Three of the trawlers that Aker Seafoods is now acquiring were fined last year for under reporting catch volumes in the Svalbard zone. Largest in Europe Akers Seafoods is the largest fish harvesting and processing company in Scandinavia, operating 14 ocean-going trawlers with a total estimated catch of 50,000 tons of whitefish and shrimp in 2007. Furthermore, it operates six processing plants in Norway and five plants in Denmark, processing a total volume of approximately 90,000 tons of seafood. Annual turnover is EUR 280 million and the company has close to 1,200 employees. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with Aker ASA as the largest shareholder holding 65 per cent of the shares. Aker Seafoods` ambition is to provide first-class seafood products to customers in all main European markets. The company, which already enjoys a strong presence in the Nordic and French markets, is now entering Spain.