The Board of Directors of Cermaq have just sent out a letter to its shareholders sorting to clarify certain aspects central to the two items to be voted on at the General Meeting on the 21st of May 2013.
The company has also encouraged the shareholders of Cermaq to attend the General Meeting, in person or by proxy, to support the value-adding Copeinca transaction.
To Cermaq the acquisition of Copeinca is value adding and strategically important to them due to the following points:
- It will contribute to securing access to raw material crucial to feed production and with scarce availability
- Cermaq has the competence to add value to Copeinca's products.
- The combination of Cermaq and Copeinca is calculated to yield annual synergies of NOK 250-270 million, before taxes. Considerable synergies are to be expected already in 2014.
Through the Copeinca transaction Cermaq aims to continue to build on the company's world leading competence in fish feed. At the same time the company hopes to create a competitive advantage for the company's feed customers through facilitating the access to marine raw materials. A certain content of marine raw materials is essential for producing high performance salmon feed. In Cermaq's view the access to marine Omega-3 from fish oil represents a considerable constraint to the further growth of the salmon farming industry. Through the acquisition of Copeinca Cermaq will secure that more than 50 percent of the company's present marine Omega-3 demand.
The potential offer announced by Marine Harvest is not to be addressed at the General Meeting of Cermaq.
The Board of Cermaq have however stated that the assessment of the Board that the indicated offer from Marine Harvest is too low and does not reflect the underlying values.
Marine Harvest have claimed that the Copeinca acquisition is not necessary in order to secure access to marine raw materials, and that no additional fish oil or fish meal capacity will be made available to the industry through this acquisition.
Marine Harvest have alluded that it will be close to impossible for them to raise the required financing for an acquisition of Cermaq that includes Copeinca.
Furthermore, Marine Harvest have stated that an acquisition of Copeinca will be too demanding, and the company lacks sufficient management resources to integrate Morpol, Cermaq, and Copeinca at the same time.
