Despite completing deals to expand their supply lines in Northern Europe and North America, major Asian trading giants such as Maruha Nichiro or Nippon Suisan Kaisha are unlikely to take any interest — at least for the immediate future — in buying wild catch enterprises in Spain and Latin America, top financial advisors told Undercurrent News.
Speaking on Undercurrent’s “What COVID-19 Means for Seafood M&A” webinar on June 4, Jose Antonio Zarzalejos — a partner with banking house “It’s not a coincidence that Nomura had the sales side mandate for Iberconsa. They were very clear they wanted to attract interest from Asian buyers, but that didn’t happen.”
Ignacio Kleiman, managing partner at the boutique seafood advisory firm Antarctica Advisors, echoed Zarzalejos’ thoughts on the Iberconsa sale.
“The issues that you have with Asian buyers in many cases are due to scale and often a lack of management capability,” he told Undercurrent. “Even though they are good traders and they purchase products from around the world, they do not [usually] have the management capability expertise for cross-border [deals], to go and take over a major fishing operation overseas.”
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Iberconsa was never likely to attract Asian investment, advisors say
/in NewsDespite completing deals to expand their supply lines in Northern Europe and North America, major Asian trading giants such as Maruha Nichiro or Nippon Suisan Kaisha are unlikely to take any interest — at least for the immediate future — in buying wild catch enterprises in Spain and Latin America, top financial advisors told Undercurrent News.
Speaking on Undercurrent’s “What COVID-19 Means for Seafood M&A” webinar on June 4, Jose Antonio Zarzalejos — a partner with banking house “It’s not a coincidence that Nomura had the sales side mandate for Iberconsa. They were very clear they wanted to attract interest from Asian buyers, but that didn’t happen.”
Ignacio Kleiman, managing partner at the boutique seafood advisory firm Antarctica Advisors, echoed Zarzalejos’ thoughts on the Iberconsa sale.
“The issues that you have with Asian buyers in many cases are due to scale and often a lack of management capability,” he told Undercurrent. “Even though they are good traders and they purchase products from around the world, they do not [usually] have the management capability expertise for cross-border [deals], to go and take over a major fishing operation overseas.”
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Pandemic forces salmon farmers to look at downstream M&A, advisors say
/in NewsThe COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive more salmon farmers to look at buying into processing to secure access to their target markets, said financial advisors from Pareto Securities and Antarctica Advisors.
Speaking on Undercurrent News’ “What COVID-19 Means for Seafood M&A” webinar (watch in full below) on June 4, Henning Lund, a senior partner at the Norwegian advisory rm Pareto, said upstream consolidation of the salmon sector would likely continue as before, with “new regulations and generation shifts more likely to impact the sector than the pandemic”.
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M&A advisor: ‘Who’s going to be next Cooke?’
/in NewsMore diversified global seafood players like Cooke are needed to bring stability to the industry, said a senior mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisor during an Undercurrent News webinar on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on deals.
Ignacio Kleiman, whose Antarctica Advisors is the most prolific M&A advisory firm according to Undercurrent’s latest Seafood Dealmakers 2020 report, said more players like Cooke would make the sector more robust in riding out global crises.
“Who’s going to be the next Cooke? Clearly, in order to be successful in the world of seafood, you have to be sizeable and you have to be diversified by species. You have to be diversified by currency. You have to be diversified by geography,” he said, on the “What COVID-19 Means for Seafood M&A” webinar.
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Argentina’s largest shrimp firm exploring sale, owner confrms
/in NewsThe owner of major Argentinian shrimp supplier Continental Armadores de Pesca (Conarpesa) is looking to sell the company, he con rmed to Undercurrent News.
Fernando Alvarez, Conarpesa’s owner and president, said that the company, which generates around $165 million in annual sales, is in talks with potential buyers to sell the major shrimp harvester at a “reasonable price”.
“A year ago, there were rumors that we [Conarpesa] were searching for investors to sell the group. At that time, Antarctica Advisors was doing a study on our company,” he said, adding that the search continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “Currently, we are still negotiating and looking for an investor who can ensure business continuity. This may not be the best time to do so, but we have been evaluating this option for a year now,” he said.
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Mitsubishi, Legend rule out Clearwater bids with Antarctica brought in to drum up global interest
/in NewsAntarctica Advisors, one of the most prolific seafood corporate finance advisory firms, has been brought in to work with RBC Capital Markets on adding more international players to the sale process for Clearwater Seafoods, sources told Undercurrent News.
RBC is leading the Clearwater sale, which was announced on March 5, with Antarctica acting as co-advisor, Clearwater’s Christine Penney confirmed to Undercurrent. The revelation Florida, US-based Antarctica will also work on the sale of Clearwater — being valued by analysts at between CAD 880 million to CAD 1.2 billion ($641m to $847m) — comes as two big Asian players, Legend Holdings of China and Mitsibushi Corp. of Japan, ruled out bids to Undercurrent.
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Antarctica Advisors Acts as Exclusive Investment Banking Advisor to Clear Springs Foods, Inc. in its 100% Sale to Riverence Holdings LLC
/in AnnouncementFebruary 4, 2020 – Antarctica Advisors LLC, the leading Seafood Industry-focused M&A advisory firm, acted as the exclusive investment banking advisor to Clear Springs Foods Inc. (“Clear Springs”), the leading grower and processor of rainbow trout in the US, in its sale to Riverence Holdings LLC (“Riverence”), a neighboring producer of steelhead trout.
Based in Idaho’s pristine Magic Valley, Clear Springs was established in 1966 and since 2000 has been employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”). The merger of Clear Springs and Riverence creates the largest producer of trout in the Americas with unrivaled expertise ranging from brood stock, farm operations through processing and national distribution. The scale of the new company will broaden the market for sustainably produced Idaho-raised trout and allow it to offer customers a wider range of quality products, including both rainbow and steelhead trout in fresh, frozen and value-added forms.
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US trout farmer Riverence closes deal for larger rival Clear Springs
/in NewsThe second-largest rainbow trout farmer in the US, owned by the creator of a multitude of hit TV shows, has a deal for its larger rival, Clear Springs Foods, making it, by far it the largest farmer of the species in the country.
The purchase by Riverence Holdings, the parent company of Idaho’s Riverence Farms, means that the combined vertically integrated farmer will include 14 farms with a total capacity of 15,000 metric tons annually, four brood stations, two processing facilities, a value-added processing arm, waste recovery plant and a feed mill, the company said.
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Riverence acquires Clear Springs, creating America’s largest trout producer
/in NewsThe company, backed by a Hollywood TV mogul, now has its sights on re-inventing the US trout market.
Idaho-based Riverence Holdings on Saturday announced it acquired rival trout giant Clear Springs Foods, making the group the largest producer of land-based trout in the Americas.
With the Clear Springs deal, the company’s operations now include Riverence Brood in Washington State and Riverence Farms, and gives it an even stronger position as a vertically-integrated producer.
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