March 21, 2014

Pesquera Iguemar, the fishing arm of Chilean conglomerate Copec, blamed an escalation of its 2013 losses on plant closures and failure of joint ventures.

The company posted a negative baseline of US$41.1 million, taking a staggering dive from 2012′s US$14.7 million loss.

In the fourth quarter, Iguemar lost US$22.2 million against a loss of US$1.7 million in the last three months of 2012. It hit the parent company's performance for that quarter, too, showing US$75 million in profits whereas the figure was US$175 million in the same period of 2012.

"Non-operating income had a loss of US$25.5 million because of higher expenses related to the closure of productive plants and lower profit from associates," Iguemar said in reference to fishing firm Corpesca, which presented profits of US$4.3 million against US$12.5 million in the last quarter of 2012.

Copec owns 81.93% of Iguemar, which retains a 66.8% stake in Orizon and 30.64% in Corpesca.

But a closer look at Iguemar's financial statement also revealed a mismatch between market tendencies and business priorities at the company.

Iguemar saw fishmeal volume sales fall by 61% to 4,900 tonnes comparing to 2012, while prices went up 15.5%. In fish oil, sales volumes decreased by 20.6% to 1,100 tonnes but prices improved 11.5%. Frozen seafood prices ended 2013 52.3% higher, yet Igemar sold 1,700 tonnes or 57.2% less than the year before.

The company succeeded in selling 713,000 boxes of canned seafood, 8.8% more than in 2012. In this category, though, prices suffered cuts of 6.6% average.

Back in September 2013, Coloso reported to the Chilean financial regulator that it had arranged to sell half its stake in Orizon to Pesquera Iguemar and to Eperva, a fishmeal and fish oil producer. Under the deal, Igeumar paid US$32.65 million for some 171.8 million shares, and Eperva disbursed US$6.45 million for 33.9 million shares.