Iceland fish farm merger nears completion

A merger between two of Iceland’s leading fish farming companies has moved into its final phase.

The board of Ice Fish Farm has approved a draft agreement to take over Laxar Fiskeldi. Both companies are majority owned by Måsøval of Norway.

They already cooperate in a number of areas but by coming together, the companies say, they will have a combined biomass of 36,800 tonnes and will create a more efficient and environmentally aware business. Talks on a possible merger began almost a year ago.

Less welcome news has been the discovery of a suspected infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) related disease at one of Laxar’s sites which is likely to reduce next year’s harvest.

An Ice Fish Farm announcement to the Oslo Stock Exchange said the company expects the merger transaction to be completed this summer.

The statement said: “The board of directors’ of the company (Ice Fish Farm) have today approved the draft share purchase agreement to effect the combination and closing of the transaction is expected to occur by end of Q2 2022.

“In connection with closing, the company will call for an EGM to approve the issuance of the 37,525,424 new consideration shares to the shareholders of Laxar, which will increase the total numbers of shares outstanding in the company to 91,525,424.”

The fish farms of both companies are physically close to each other and are mainly concentrated in the eastern part of Iceland, although Ice Fish Farm also has operations in the south of the country.

Laxar Fiskeldi is a fully integrated business and also has its own smolt production and hatchery facilities. It produces high quality salmon mainly for markets in the United States and Europe.

Ice Fish Farm, which is listed on Oslo’s EuroNext Growth market, successfully turned loss into profit during the final quarter of last year.