SalMar completes £359m sale of stake in wellboat company Frøy

Salmon farmer SalMar has completed the sale of its controlling stake in wellboat, sea freight, and marine services company Frøy to asset manager Goldman Sachs, it said in a market announcement today.

SalMar, which co-owns Scottish Sea Farms, became the majority owner of Frøy when it acquired fish farmer and marine services company NTS ASA in a deal that made it the world’s second largest salmon farmer. NTS owned 72.11% of Frøy, which operates 17 wellboats including one of the world’s largest capacity wellboats, the 7,500m³-well-capacity Gåsø Høvding, built by Sefine Shipyard in Turkey in 2021.

Frøy has a fleet of 80 vessels in total, including cargo vessels boats and barges for fish treatment, aquaculture service boats, net washing vessels, and dive boats.

Falcon Bidco, a Norwegian company created by Goldman Sachs for the sole purpose of carrying out the deal, paid NOK 76.50 per share, which valued Frøy at NOK 6.6 billion. This means that SalMar earned approximately NOK 4.76bn (approximately £359 million at today’s exchange rate) for its 72.11% stake.