On Monday morning, Mowi announced its intentions towards NTS. The company offered NOK 110 per share, which prices Rørvik-based NTS at NOK 13.8 billion (€1.4 billion). In the announcement, it was confirmed that Sparebank 1 Markets is engaged to assist Mowi in the ongoing bidding.
As in the summer of 2013, when Mowi (then known as Marine Harvest) wanted to devour competitor Cermaq, which in turn would buy up the fishmeal company Copeinca, a lot of investment banks were hired to provide financial and legal advice in the acquisition battle.
Maximizing shareholder value
Per Even Hauge is head of the seafood department in the corporate finance department in DNB Markets. Together with Danske Bank, they are engaged to assist the independent part of the NTS board in the process the company is involved in.
“We work to maximize shareholder value, and have contacted a number of industrial players. Many are interested in NTS, and now Mowi has taken to the field,” Hauge told Dagens Næringsliv.
NTS largest owner, Helge Gåsø, considers it “a little special” that the NTS breakaways showed up at Friday’s general meeting with two advisers from the brokerage house Carnegie.
“It is not common to attend general meetings with financial advisers, so I reckon that they would have planned a board meeting afterwards if they won, to initiate a sale of NRS,” Gåsø said to E24.
Opportunities for sale
Roald Dolmen is part of the aforementioned ownership group, which has itself announced a bid for NTS, of NOK 105 per share.
“In the message about it, we wrote that we also looked at opportunities for sales. Several have probably noticed,” said Dolmen to DN.
As SalmonBusiness has previously reported, the biggest favorites to get the contract on NTS are the large producers who have the financial muscle to do so and at the same time can extract operational synergies.
Mowi may be at the front of the queue, but just behind are names like SalMar, Lerøy and Cermaq.
