Norway Royal Salmon has sold its southern Norway operation to a consortium of three other salmon farmers. Photo: NRS.

Norway Royal Salmon sells southern farms for £111m

Norway Royal Salmon has agreed a deal to sell its Region South farming business to a consortium of three smaller salmon farmers for NOK 1.24 billion (£111 million).

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NRS wants to concentrate on its salmon farming activities in northern Norway and Iceland.

The consortium buying Sør Farming, a subsidiary of NRS which operates Region South, comprises Tombre Fiskeanlegg, Lingalaks and Eidesvik Laks.

4,680 tonnes of biomass

Sør Farming owns and operates six salmon farming licences with a total maximum allowed biomass (MAB) of 4,680 tonnes in the area around Haugesund. The business has approximately 30 employees.

As part of the deal, NRS and the consortium have also entered a long-term cooperation with regards to sale and purchase of fish.

Charles Høstlund: Happy that the buyers are local.

Pleased with price

“NRS is pleased with the achieved purchase price, and that we can continue to develop our cooperation with the buyers with regards to export of fish, and thus also continue to strengthen our sales department,” said NRS chief executive Charles Høstlund in a press release.

“We are also pleased that the buyers are local and have the ambitions and resources to continue to develop the business.”

Høstlund said the company’s ambition is to develop the fish farming industry through the continued development of its operations, innovation and new technology, with northern Norway at the centre of its efforts.

Financial flexibility

He added that the sale gave NRS financial flexibility to assess new opportunities for growth.

Lingalaks AS, Tombre Fiskeanlegg AS, and Eidesvik Laks AS say that they have decided not to provide additional information to the press related to the transaction or their plans for future operations before the transfer takes place in December. 

NRS owns 34,746 tonnes of biomass located in West Finnmark and Troms, and Arctic Fish in Iceland. It also has minority interests in three other Norwegian salmon farmers which together own 10 licences.