Emilsen Fisk owns 1/9th of Salmonor, which is now in play. But the fish farmer has no plans to sell his ownership.
Earlier on Tuesday, it was announced that the medium-sized fish farming company Salmonor in Rørvik, Central Norway, had been put up for sale.
Why is it that only the listed companies Mowi, SalMar and NTS are allowed to bid for Salmonor?
“I don’t want to comment on that,” said chairman of the board of Emilsen Fisk Tore Holand.
“But what I can comment on is that Emilsen Fisk really wants to buy, not sell. We own 11.2 per-cent of the shares in Salmonor. We want to buy up and not sell,” he repeated.
Holand believes that Emilsen Fisk as a shareholder has a pre-emptive right to share in Salmonor.
“You get to deal with common laws and regulations in a pre-emptive right. We only adhere to the Rules of the Norwegian Limited Liability Companies Act on pre-emption rights,” he said.
Emilsen Fisk had an operating profit of EUR 17.5 million in 2019, it’s last publicly known financial year. At the beginning of 2020, the company had a balance sheet of EUR 70 million, of which EUR 46 million was book equity. The ownership of neighbouring company Salmonor alone is worth at least EUR 30 million.
Is it actually the case that only listed companies are allowed to bid for Salmonor?
“I don’t know. We haven’t received any notice of a bid deadline or anything like that. So we don’t know about that,” Holand replied.
Have there been demands for exclusive settlement in shares?
“I don’t know. But if you get settled in cash, you can buy as many shares as you want afterward”.
Wouldn’t it be an advantage for the sale if the best possible players were able to bid for the company?
“You’d think so. That one would have as many bidders as possible on the pitch when selling. But now I speak in general about the purchase and sale of companies,” he emphasised. “I can’t comment further at this time”.
“We have not put our share up for sale. And they can’t sell our shares,” Holand said.
