Fishing acquisition provisionally approved
No retrenchments
SOUTH AFRICA: The intended acquisition of Aqunion, Saldanha Sales and Marketing and West Point Fishing as well as the Terrasan Beleggings (Pty) Ltd head office by Sea Harvest Pelagic and Sea Harvest Aquaculture has been conditionally approved by the Competition Commission.
According to a statement issued by the Competition Commission, the parties have committed not to nominate or appoint the same individuals to the board of directors and to implement a confidentiality and information exchange policy to restrict the exchange of competitively sensitive information.
The merging parties have also agreed not to retrench any employees in South Africa as a result of the proposed merger.
The principal seafood business of Sea Harvest is the fishing of cape hake in South Africa as well as prawns in Australia, the processing of the catch into value-added frozen and non-frozen seafood for marketing and sale, the sustainable farming and marketing of abalone.
The target firms include the various subsidiaries of Terrasan, which operate the pelagic fishing business and abalone business. Saldanha Sales and Marketing and West Point Fishing operate Terrasan’s pelagic fish business. The Saldanha Fishing Business conducts business activities such as harvesting, processing (pilchards into canned pilchards and anchovies into fishmeal and fish oil), supplying and marketing pelagic fish including anchovies and pilchards.
The Saldanha Fishing Business produces canned fish products out of pilchards for the South African market and high-quality fishmeal and fish oil out of anchovies (and by-catch) for local and export markets.
Aqunion operates Terrasan's abalone business, which includes abalone farming, ranching, processing and sales and marketing, as well as the manufacture and sale of aquafeed for use in abalone farming.
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