Marine Harvest backs out of Cermaq deal
The biggest contemplated corporate takeover in the business of salmon farming seems to have come to an end. Not that long ago, Marine Harvest- already the World’s largest salmon farming company- offered to buy all outstanding shares of the Norwegian fish farming and feed producing company Cermaq through a combination of cash and shares in Marine Harvest. Based on the value of Marine Harvest shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange last Friday, the offer would amount to about NOK 104.51 (~€13.14)for each Cermaq share- about half of that in cash. Based on the price of a share in Marine Harvest in early May, the offer would have been worth about NOK 108.- for each share.
Following the news about the expiry last Friday of Marine Harvest’s offer, the value of Cermaq shares dropped from a June high of about NOK 113.- to a close of NOK 102.50. As reported earlier in FishfarmingXpert, the Norwegian government has approved the increase of its shareholdings in Cermaq to above 50%, thus effectively retaining full control of the ownership of the company. The largest shareholder of Marine Harvest is John Fredriksen, who gave up his Norwegian citizenship and now enjoys lower taxes in London, England.
Marine Harvest issued the following Press Release on Friday last week;
Expiry of the offer period in the voluntary offer for all the outstanding shares in Cermaq ASA
Reference is made to previous stock exchange notices regarding Marine Harvest ASA's ("Marine Harvest") voluntary offer to acquire all outstanding shares in Cermaq ASA ("Cermaq"). The acceptance period of the voluntary offer expired at 09:00 (CET) on 21 June 2013. Marine Harvest has through the voluntary offer received acceptances below the 33.4 per cent level (including shares already held by Marine Harvest) set as a condition for completion of the voluntary offer in section 4.7 (i) of the offer document dated 5 June 2013. Accordingly, Marine Harvest will not complete the voluntary offer and all acceptances received are automatically released.
