By Karen Peattie
SALMON farmer Scottish Sea Farms has entered a share purchase agreement to acquire Grieg Seafood Hjaltland UK, which has operations on Shetland and the Isle of Skye, from Grieg Seafood ASA in a deal worth £164 million.
The acquisition is a strategic move by Norwegian-owned Scottish Sea Farms to “to deliver optimal biological performance and help meet rising demand for premium quality, Scottish-grown salmon”.
Grieg Seafood Hjaltland UK currently operates 21 marine farms, a freshwater hatchery and a processing facility, harvesting about 16,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon in 2020.
Scottish Sea Farms, which is co-owned by Lerøy Seafood Group and SalMar ASA, said the Grieg Seafood Hjaltland business complements the geography and nature of its own operations which are located across mainland Scotland, Shetland and Orkney. Last year, the business produced about 24,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon.
Jim Gallagher, the chief executive of Scottish Sea Farms which has its head office in Stirling and regional offices in Argyll, Kirkwall and Scalloway, said: “As farmers, we are constantly striving to create the best growing conditions for our salmon.
“The purchase of Grieg Seafood Hjaltland UK is a landmark step in our long-term strategy, giving us greater influence over several key biological factors including fish health, stocking regimes and sea-lice management.
“We’re very much looking forward to pairing the skill and know-how of our existing farming and fish health teams with the local expertise within Grieg Seafood Hjaltland UK, working as one to benefit fish welfare and boost survival.
“This, in turn, will ensure a more secure and stable supply of salmon for our discerning customers the world over, helping satisfy the insatiable demand for this highly nutritious, low-carbon food.”
The purchase price, which is on a cash and debt-free basis, is expected to be financed with 100 per cent cash consideration from Scottish Sea Farms. It is anticipated that the transaction will close within Q4 2021, subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities and customary closing conditions.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here