Farm belonging to Salmones Magallanes. (Photo: Salmones Magallanes)

AquaChile will buy Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Eden for USD 255 million

CHILE
Friday, June 01, 2018, 23:40 (GMT + 9)

AquaChile informed the Commission for the Financial Market that yesterday it signed an agreement to acquire the entire business of Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Eden in their current salmon farming operation in both freshwater and seawater.

This transaction, for an approximate amount of USD 255 million, will allow AquaChile to strengthen its business in the extreme south of the country.

Salmones Magallanes and Pesquera Eden have 26 sea concessions located in the Magallanes region, a recirculation fish farm with ample capacity and a processing plant in Puerto Natales, which allows them to concentrate all their operations in the region.

In 2017, the two companies produced 22,900 tonnes of Atlantic salmon and have the potential to produce 40,000 tonnes in the medium term.

The purchase will be financed "through a combination of currently available resources, debt and funds from the capital increase recently approved by the shareholders meeting of Empresas AquaChile S.A.," explained the company through an essential fact.

"This acquisition is a big step for our company, since it allows us to enter the Region of Magallanes with the appropriate scale, with assets, with a very good productive and health record, and with a first-class human team, thus increasing the geographic diversification of our business and, in the process, making it possible to make better use of the concessions we already have in that region. We are convinced that Magallanes has all the conditions to ensure the sustainable development of aquaculture in the southern part of our country," said Agustín Ugalde, general manager of Empresas AquaChile S.A.

Before knowing this transaction, AquaChile expected to produce this year around 110,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon, trout and tilapia.

The purchase operation is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities.

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