Sea Harvest Group is in the process of acquiring 100% of Terrasan Group Limited’s pelagic catching, processsing and sales subsidiaries.
Alongside Terrasan’s pelagic business, Sea Harvest is also taking on a 63.07% share of Terrasan’s subsidiaries engaged in the farming, processing and sale of abalone. The whole acquisition is worth R965 million, to be settled in shares and cash.
Terrasan’s vertically integrated pelagic fish business, West Point Fishing, is based in St. Helena Bay on the West Coast of South Africa where it operates a fleet of anchovy and sardine vessels, employing more than 600 staff. Its production is fish oil and fishmeal for mainly export markets, as well as canned fish supplied largely to the South African market and sold under the 118-year-old Saldanha brand.
Terrasan’s vertically integrated abalone business, Aqunion, one of South Africa’s leading abalone businesses based in Hermanus and Gansbaai, has been in operation for thirty years. Employing 430 people, Aqunion produces and sells dried, canned and live abalone to a diversified customer base across the Far East.
‘We are confident that the acquisition will create value and diversification into wild caught pelagic species and their processed products, including fish oil, fish meal and canned fish,’ said Sea Harvest Group CEO, Felix Ratheb.
‘Furthermore, it will enable us to add value and scale to our own small sardine and anchovy pelagic quota where we currently have a small footprint; add a 118-year-old brand to the Group thereby complementing our 60-year-old hake brand; counter the cyclicality of the pelagic fishery relative to the hake fishery and add a mature, cash generative abalone business with a diversified customer base and markets to our existing abalone operations.’
The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals, the approval of Sea Harvest and Terrasan shareholders, and conditions normal for a transaction of this nature.
