Iceland's Samherji wins contest for Faroe Seafood fleet – Fishupdate.com
Iceland’s Samherji wins contest for Faroe Seafood fleet Published: 18 February, 2011
THE Icelandic fishing company Samherji has won the contest to buy the assets of the Faroe Seafood Company, which includes six modern trawlers.
Faroe Seafood, arguably the most important fish business in the Faroe Islands, filed for bankruptcy shortly before Christmas after talks to find a buyer fell through. Ironically, Samherji, was among the bidders at that time.
Now Samherji, which already has interests in the Faroes, has come back again, leading a consortium of Icelandic and Faroese pelagic fishing companies, which also includes Framherji and Vardin. In addition to the six trawlers, the deal also includes four fish processing plans. The figure has not been disclosed and the takeover will be formally ratified on Monday. Managing director Anfinn Olsen said, after the deal was announced yesterday, that the important thing was to get orders for fishing as soon as possible. Up to 15 companies, mainly from Nordic countries, took part in the bidding process.
Faroe Seafood was established more than 60 years ago and owned a fleet of state-of-the-art fishing vessels along with modern processing facilities. It was also a member of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers, the Faroe Fish Farmers Association.
Yesterday’s deal will certainly boost Samherji’s reputation as one of the fastest growing North Atlantic fishing companies. It too has a modern fleet fishing for both groundfish and pelagic species and owns a significant volume of Iceland’s overall fish quota. There are also subsidiary operations throughout Europe including the UK where it has a base on the Humber.
Samherjis aquaculture comprises of most aspects of fish farming, i.e. hatching, juvenile production, the growing of marketable fish, harvesting, packaging and marketing of the products.