After salmon, owner of Pingo Doce invests €13.5 million in cod producer in Norway

The Jerónimo Martins group is set to acquire a stake in Norwegian cod producer Norcod, preparing to invest around €13.5 million to take an 18% stake in the Nordic company, becoming its second largest shareholder.

After increasing its stake (35%) in salmon producer Andfjord Salmon this year, the owner of Pingo Doce is once again investing in aquaculture in Norway. The company will carry out a capital increase to be subscribed by Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar.

According to a statement released on Thursday, the Norwegian company’s board of directors has proposed holding an extraordinary general meeting to approve the issue of 12,707,454 new shares at a unit price of 12.375 Norwegian kroner (€1.06 at the current exchange rate).

In this capital increase valued at €13.46 million, the management justifies that the private placement “is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders”, highlighting the “importance of securing a strategic partnership with Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar and the value that such an investor adds to Norcod”.

And it is “to further strengthen the partnership” with the agri-food arm of the group led by Pedro Soares dos Santos that the appointment of António Serrano, CEO of Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar, as a new member of Norcod’s board of directors will also be proposed at this meeting, to be held at the end of this month.

The Portuguese manager stresses that “this financial investment is in line with [the group’s] long-term vision for innovative animal protein production, in a context of high pressure on wild fish populations, particularly a species as controlled as cod”.

“For our company, investing in more sustainable forms of food production is a priority. In Norcod, we found a commitment to Research & Development (R&D), on the one hand, and to the continuous improvement of practices, on the other, which we always seek to develop in our portfolio”, adds António Serrano.

Quoted in the same press release, the CEO of Nordoc, whose other shareholders include High Liner Foods and the Danish group Sirena, praises the “reputation, scale and experience” that make Jerónimo Martins an “exceptional partner” for the company, which has several production centres in the centre of the country and along the Helgeland coast.

Christian Riber points out that “this investment not only strengthens the balance sheet, but also significantly expands the range of strategic opportunities” for the company, which, together with the other two shareholders, will “expand access and the platform to bring low-intensity cod production to a significant international market”.