Måsøval Eiendom finds partner for Ice Fish Farm
Måsøval Eiendom, the main shareholder in Ice Fish Farm, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Icelandic fishing company Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja over its Iceland-based salmon operation.
A separate holding company, Austur, has been created to manage the joint ownership.
Last November Fish Farmer reported that Måsøval was seeking a suitable partner for the business.
Norway-based Måsøval Eiendom announced the deal today in a statement to the market.
The statement said: “To facilitate the transaction and the partnership, Måsøval Eiendom has established Austur Holding AS (“Austur”) for the sole purpose of holding shares in Ice Fish Farm.
“Austur will at closing of the Agreement i) own all 51,361,866 shares in Ice Fish Farm, formerly held by Måsøval Eiendom, and ii) hold the shareholder loans provided by Måsøval Eiendom to Ice Fish Farm.”
Lars Måsøval, chairman of Måsøval Eiendom, said: “We are very excited to form this partnership with Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja for our shareholding in Ice Fish Farm.
“Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja is a successful family-owned company with a long impressive history and with deep roots into the Icelandic seafood sector, which has a lot of similarities with Måsøval Eiendom and they align well with our values.
“Furthermore, Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja will broaden and strengthen the shareholder base of Ice Fish Farm and be a valuable stakeholder that we believe will contribute to our future success on the Icelandic East coast”.
Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja’s vice-chairman Einar Sigurðsson, added: “We are very happy to form this partnership and take this step into the salmon farming sector in Iceland.
“We have a long tradition from the fishery sector, but we have over several years followed the strong growth within the salmon farming sector in Iceland, and we believe that it will be a steadily growing industry in Iceland for many years to come, and create a lot of jobs and value for the communities along the Icelandic coastline.”
Last week Ice Fish Farm reached a £138m deal with four banks to help take the business forward.
Ísfélag Vestmannaeyja processing facility
