16 September 2018

Iceland Seafood International hf completes the acquisition of Solo Seafood ehf

ISI is delighted to announce that the acquisition of Solo Seafood ehf has been completed today, September 16th. The transaction creates an integrated European industry powerhouse with excellent future growth prospects across the whole group.

ISI recently announced the Shareholders approval of granting the Board authorization to issue shares in relation to the acquisition of Solo Seafood ehf. Today, the Board with the reference to this authority, increased the share capital by 1,024,977,425.  At the same time the board approved to enter into an amendment to the share purchase agreement dated 31 July 2018 which will see the company acquire Solo Seafood ehf for a consideration which consists of the 1,025m issued shares (which are traded at 7,92 ISK per share at close of trading 14th September 2018) and a cash payment of €478k.  The former shareholders of Solo Seafood have agreed that they will not sell, transfer or assign part of their shares in ISI for a period of 12 months, this applies to 83% of the 1,025m shares related to the transaction. 

Solo Seafood is a company owned by Sjávarsýn, FISK Seafood, Jakob Valgeir and Nesfiskur and Icelandic Iberica‘s Managing Director, Hjörleifur Ásgeirsson. The three mentioned seafood companies (FISK, Jakob Valgeir and Nesfiskur) hold a significant percentage of the national fishing quotas in Iceland. The combined vendor group will become long-term shareholders and suppliers of ISI.  

Icelandic Iberica is one of the leading seafood companies in the South European market with turnover of €120m and pre-tax profits in excess of €4 million with a projected 2018 full year outturn of more than €4.7M at pre-tax level (excluding finance costs in the parent company Solo of c.a. €0.2m). With its extensive product range including cod (bacalao), Argentinian shrimp, cuttlefish and hake and processing capacity in Spain and Argentina, Icelandic Iberica, who over the last twenty years has pioneered the marketing of light salted Icelandic cod in Southern Europe, has seen strong growth in sales and profit in the last few years.

The acquisition produces in combination a Group with sales of more than €400m delivering in excess of €10m in proforma pre-tax profits for 2018 with material synergy benefits and growth within the combined business still to be added. 

With this acquisition Iceland Seafood International continues its strategy of acquiring strong value-added companies in key markets and  will now operate 7 value added factories globally.  The ISI shareholders of Fisk Seafood, Jakob Valgeir and Nesfiskur, all major players in the Icelandic seafood industry who collectively represent over 10% of the Icelandic quota, operating 8 processing factories in Iceland create a fully integrated seafood supply chain serving over 45 countries and more than 3,000 customers around the world.

The transaction represents an exciting phase in the development of ISI and presents numerous opportunities for the group to continue its excellent growth rates in the years ahead.

Helgi Anton Eiríksson – CEO of Iceland Seafood International
“It gives us great pleasure to announce the acquisition of Icelandic Iberica Group today.  It is a significant milestone in our value added strategy of creating an integrated supply chain from source through to the end customer and with the three major Icelandic seafood operators of Fisk, Nesfiskur and Jakob Valgeir as major shareholders will create opportunities in Southern Europe and across all territories we serve.
I welcome the great employees at the Icelandic Iberica Group to our enlarged ISI group and look forward to growing our whole business further as a result” 

Bjarni Ármannsson – Chairman of Iceland Seafood International
“This is a transformational step for Iceland Seafood to bring together two large European operators and bring opportunities to leverage our sourcing, distribution and production capabilities to the benefit of our group it’s customers, people, supply partners and shareholders. I am proud to be a part of this great development and I am excited about our future opportunities. ”  

About Iceland Seafood International

Tracing its roots to 1932, ISI is a worldwide sales, processing and marketing company for frozen, salted and fresh seafood. Headquartered in Reykjavik with operations in eight countries and processing facilities in Spain, Ireland, United Kingdom and Argentina, ISI is a publicly traded company with its shares listed on Nasdaq First North Iceland and generates annual sales of ca €400m across 45 countries.

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