Above: The Mareterram fishing fleet in Carnarvon, WA, Australia.
Sea Harvest Corporation, the 52-year-old South African vertically integrated fishing company and recently voted the No.7 Icon brand in South Africa, has managed to secure control of Mareterram Limited, a vertically integrated agri-business listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Mareterram owns a fleet of ten prawn trawlers and is the largest license holder in the Western Australian Shark Bay Prawn Managed Fishery, catching and processing wild caught King and Tiger Prawns. The Prawn fishery has also attained the coveted Marine Stewardship Council certification – the gold standard for sustainable fisheries. Mareterram employs 110 staff and has fishing operations in Carnarvon in Western Australia with distribution and sales offices in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
Sea Harvest will own an effective 56% of Mareterram, after shareholders accepted a bid from Sea Harvest totalling approximately R200 million.
Sea Harvest CEO Felix Ratheb says, “We are excited about our controlling stake in Mareterram as their strategy is very closely aligned with Sea Harvest’s strategy of becoming a global vertically integrated agri-business.”
Brimstone Investment Corporation recently increased their stake in Sea Harvest to 85% by buying out Kagiso Tiso Holdings, making Sea Harvest one of the most transformed fishing companies in the industry. Fred Robertson, Executive Chairman of Brimstone comments, “Brimstone supports acquisitive growth by our subsidiaries. In this instance the opportunity of global expansion using Australia as an entry point is an exciting one and aligns with our view of becoming a global player in the sector. ”
Mareterram closed at 29c on the ASX giving it a market cap of $41m (R440 million).
Media Publications:
Fin24:
http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Agribusiness/sea-harvest-gains-control-of-australian-company-20160810
All Africa:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201608110241.html
Food Review:
http://www.foodreview.co.za/28-food-technology-innovations/1866-sea-harvest-secures-control-of-maretteram
Africa Capital Digest:
http://africacapitaldigest.com/brimstones-sea-harvest-expands-mareterram-stake/