Norwegian seafood group Marine Harvest is to make a bid to buy 100% of salmon processor Morpol.
Marine Harvest today (17 December) announced it had struck a deal to acquire 48.5% of Morpol for NOK937.6m (US$167m) and said it would launch a mandatory offer for the rest of the business.
Chairman Ole-Eirik Lerøy said the acquisition of the Morpol stake was part of the company's ambition to be a "world-leading integrated protein group".
Lerøy said: "Our already strong position within salmon farming will be further strengthened and our presence within value added processing activities will take a giant leap through this transaction."
Marine Harvest said Morpol was "a world leader in [the] value-adding processing of smoked and marinated salmon". Morpol has processing and distribution facilities in countries including the UK, France, Germany and Poland. It has sales offices in markets including Japan and the US.
Marine Harvest said its NOK11.50-a-share offer was a 38.6% premium on Morpol's share price when the stock exchange closed on Friday. It will table an offer for the rest of the business within four weeks.
