September 23, 2010

Grieg Seafood acquires two Scottish fish farms

Grieg Seafood subsidiary Grieg Seafood Hjaltland on Wednesday (Sep 22) announced that it acquired two fish production licenses/sites in Scotland for NOK23 million (US$3.9 million).

The sites are located on Scotland's west coast (Isle of Sky) in an area with no fish-farming operations in the immediate vicinity. Currently, the farms are capable of producing about 3,000 metric tons (gutted weight) of fish per generation.

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland is already producing fish on the sites under a contract-growing agreement.

The Grieg Group's ordinary profit before tax came to NOK581 million in 2009 against NOK63 million in the previous year. The result after tax came to NOK1 billion compared to NOK246 million in 2008.

The result after tax includes the previous tax provisions and taxes paid in a total amount of NOK446 million, following the ruling of the Norwegian Supreme Court regarding retroactive tax for shipping companies.

The operating revenue increased from NOK2.2 billion in 2008 to NOK4.5 billion in 2009, mainly because Grieg Star Shipping was consolidated into the Grieg Group from 2009. At year end 2009 the Grieg Group equity was NOK5.1 billion and total assets were NOK8.1 billion.