The sale of Norwegian salmon giant Grieg Seafood's Shetland operations to Scottish Sea Farms is now complete.

In June, Scottish Sea Farms signed a share purchase agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Grieg Seafood Hjaltland UK -- the parent company of Grieg Seafood's Shetland business -- for £164 million ($227 million/€190 million).

The completed deal includes 21 active farm sites across Shetland and Skye, a new land-based feeding center, a freshwater facility and a processing plant.

The deal will allow Grieg to focus on its core markets of Norway and Canada.

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The sale follows a three-year long period of restructuring and operational improvement of the Shetland operations, which now has been turned around, Grieg Seafood CEO Andreas Kvame said in a press release.

Earlier this month, UK competition authorities gave the deal a green light.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began investigating the proposed acquisition in October, looking at whether the deal would lessens competition in the UK market.

This was not the first time Grieg sought to sell its Shetland operations. In 2016, it engaged Pareto Securities to assist with finding a buyer, but did not receive any satisfactory bids.

Scottish Sea Farms – which is co-owned 50/50 by Leroy Seafood Group and SalMar – said a deal would allow it to "deliver optimal biological performance and help meet rising demand for premium quality, Scottish-grown salmon."

Scottish Sea Farms’ operations are located across mainland Scotland, Shetland and Orkney and produced approximately 24,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon in 2020.