The brutal battle between salmon farming giants Marine Harvest and Cermaq is set to go the distance. Intrafish reported today (2 May):
The article in Intrafish – the industry's trade bible – concluded:
Keep up-dated on all salmon farming news via Intrafish – subscribe online here
Reuters reported earlier today (2 May):
The hostile takeover made a big splash in the trade press with Intrafish devoting their front page to the battle between the #1 salmon farming company in the world (Marine Harvest) and the world's #2 (Cermaq).
The mega-merger was front-page news in Norway making a splash in E24, Dagens Naringsliv, Aftenposten and Dagbladet.
The takeover pits two of Norway's biggest heavyweights in the same ring: in one corner is the 'Viking Raider' – Norway's richest man John Fredriksen (owner of Marine Harvest).
In the other corner is Cermaq's CEO Jon Hindar and the Norwegian Government (as the largest shareholder of the state-owned multinational).
The fight could be a dirty one indeed – Forbes famously described John Fredriksen as "a murky character notorious for rowdy drinking binges and
playing rough with takeover targets". Marine Harvest's owner John Fredrisken is the biggest fish in the
murky waters of the global salmon farming pond. Fredriksen is the 87th richest man in the world
world worth $11.5 billion according to the Forbes Rich List and goes by the nickname 'Storeulv' (Big Wolf) – the name of Fredriksen's unauthorized biography.
Yesterday, the 'Big Wolf' himself put more of his money where his mouth is when dropping a further $154 million into Marine Harvest (a drop into the bucket of his $11.5 billion fortune).
Read more background via Mmm Mega-Marine Harvest: Super-Liced Salmon! and Salmon Giant Eats Salmon Giant – Marine Harvest takeover of Cermaq!
BusinessWeek/Bloomberg reported (2 May):
Fisheries Information reported (2 May):
Canada's Globe & Mail newspaper reported (2 May):
