Faroese salmon farmer Bakkafrost began purchasing the remaining Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) shares, as part of a compulsory action to fully acquire the company.

The shares represent about 4.5 percent of the total number of shares in issue in SSC.

The shareholders would be compensated with NOK 28.25 (€2.80/$3.10) per share in the compulsory acquisition, the same amount paid by Bakkafrost in the mandatory offer which closed in December 2019.

The total remaining shares amount to NOK 240 million (€24 million/$27 million) and the process is expected to close in February, after which Bakkafrost will have completed the acquisition of all shares in SSC.

Bakkafrost reported a growth in harvest volumes for the fourth quarter of 2019, up 46 percent on the previous year.

In October, Bakkafrost announced it completed the acquisition of 133,125,109 shares of SSC from Northern Link for NOK 3.76 billion (€374.2 million/$411.1 million) or NOK 28.2 (€2.80/$3.10) per share.

Minority shareholders were previously criticizing the bid, stating they wanted the same offer that was given to Northern Link.

Bakkafrost also signed a binding agreement on Dec. 9 to secure a €352 million ($389 million) loan package for the next five years in order to fund the SSC deal, refinance existing bank facilities, and to secure more growth in the future.

SSC appointed Odd Eliasen as its new CEO following its merger with Bakkafrost. Eliasen was previously managing director of Bakkafrost subsidiary Havsbrun.

He replaced Craig Andersen on Dec. 16, after the two companies agreed on the change.

Finance

Bakkafrost purchasing last remaining SSC shares