July 1, 2009

Japan's Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc. on Monday (June 29) said it will sell its Madagascar shrimp farming subsidiary, Societe malgache de Pecherie, to a Chinese state-owned company in July.

The Japanese firm decided in March to case its shrimp farming business due to the economic slump and a decline in shrimp prices.

A contract will be done in early July firm that will transfer the Japanese firm's entire 68.08 percent stake in the Madagascar unit to the Chinese company effective July 31 for around 600 million yen (US$6.3 million).

Maruha Nichiro will book an extraordinary gain from the sale in the year ending March 2010.

The Madagascar unit cultivates tiger shrimp variety but results have been deteriorating due to a slowdown in the shrimp market. It reported an 894 million yen net loss on 457 million yen in sales in the year ended December 2008.