July 31, 2013

Five business groups express interest in acquiring Pescanova's subsidiaries

Five international business groups have expressed interest in buying assets of the three companies composing Pesca Chile: the salmon firms Acuinova and Nova Austral, and the Pesca Chile itself, engaged in capturing fish.

This occurs when the bankruptcy trustee of the Chilean subsidiary of Pescanova, Herman Chadwick, continues developing its plan to sell the company's assets before the end of 2013 in compliance with the divestments plan prepared by LarrainVial and Landmark.

One of the interested firms is the Canadian Cooke Aquaculture, which has already negotiated the purchase of Acuinova with Manuel Fernández de Sousa - Pescanova's former chairman. Cooke is also interested in Nova Austral, as this company has better production levels.

In addition, in February the Norwegian multinational firm Marine Harvest held discussions with de Sousa, as did the executives of Salmones Humboldt -- owned by the Japanese holding Mitsubishi - and AquaChile.

Besides, the Chinese firm Pacific Andes is really interested in acquiring Pesca Chile, as it has a fleet of nine ships and fishing licenses, especially, for southern hake. According to the data published by Estrategia, the firms Acuinova and Nova Austral are valued at more than US$200 million.

It is expected that during the first two weeks of August, Landmark and LarrainVial issue an information memorandum on each of the three companies of the group, but once the confidentiality agreement is signed. At this non-binding stage, the interested firms will be requested to express what assets they have interest in, what price they are willing to pay and the funding available or committed to the transaction.

During the binding stage, which will start in the last week of September, visits to the facilities, the reception of bids and the evaluation by the trustee Chadwick and creditors are to take place. Given what has been scheduled, the sales process will conclude in the third week of December.

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