Morpol ASA secures majority shareholding in Marine Farms

September 17, 2010 09:48

Morpol ASA has acquired a further 74.1% of the shares in Marine Farms ASA ("MAFA") at a price of NOK 18.50 per share, and consequently controls 90.5 % of the company. Morpol intends to launch a mandatory cash offer to purchase all outstanding shares in MAFA at NOK 18.50 per share or initiate a mandatory redemption in accordance with the Public Limited Liability Companies Act Section 4-25, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Morpol.

Marine Farms Scottish operation in salmon farming, Lakeland, has consistently delivered good results and has an estimated harvest of 12,000 tonnes of salmon for 2010 and plans to sell 14,000 tonnes in 2011. Following on from the recent acquisitions of Mainstream Scotland, Westray Salmon and Rysa Salmon, Morpol has created a farming operation with potential for over 25 000 tonnes of annual harvest. Morpol expects to achieve strong synergies in raw material utilization within the sales and processing division and further synergies on the farming integration. The combined Scottish entity will be used as a platform to strengthen Morpol's position in key sales markets.

Additionally, MAFA has interesting activities in Seabass/Bream through Culmarex as well as emerging operations in Cobia farming with the main activities in Vietnam. Morpol intends to hold the Culmarex and Cobia assets for sale or a potential spin off as a separate listed company.

Marine Farms is listed at the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) with the ticker MAFA.

Transaction
Morpol has acquired 21.1 million shares at NOK 18.50 per share and 6.0 million shares at NOK 18.00 per share corresponding to 74.1% of the shares in Marine Farms for a total of NOK 499 million. After today's transactions Morpol owns a total of 90.5% of the shares in Marine Farms.

For further information, please contact:

Steven Rafferty, Chief Financial Officer, phone +47 97 66 41 04
John-Paul McGinley, Chief Operating Officer, phone +48 507 030 019


About Morpol
The Morpol Group is engaged in salmon processing as well as sale and distribution of finished salmon products. The Morpol Group's main products are: cold and hot smoked salmon, gravadlax, fresh salmon fillets, frozen salmon portions, organic salmon, wild salmon and salmon specialties. The Morpol Group had revenue of approximately EUR 340 million in 2009.

Founded in 1996 in Ustka on the Baltic coast of Poland, the company employs over 3,000 people in eight countries. Morpol Group is the world leader in smoked salmon. The company has achieved its world leading position through the efficiency of processing activities, a constant focus on product quality and service provided to retail and food service customers. Morpol serves customers across Europe, in Japan and the United States.
www.morpol.com

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