There are multiple groups that have tried, at different times since its foundation (June 1960), to take control of Pescanova. This is a group always accustomed to shopping (Copiba, Pescafina, Promarisco or Krustanord), not to ‘suffering’ them in their own flesh. In the mid-nineties, the fishing industry was about to pass into foreign hands, in an operation that was paralyzed directly by Manuel Fraga and a public check for 7,000 million of the missing pesetas, for which reason that barrage led by Unilever was left in blank bullets. The fishing company stayed in Galicia and, despite its financial leverage, it has continued to grow since then, expanding and integrating new subsidiaries. Of course, almost nothing was left of that Pescanova used to leading transactions after 2013, when it took part in a ‘macro-contest’ that would leave it in the hands of its creditors. This is how it is today, almost 98% controlled by Abanca. The internship in its shareholding, ten years after going bankrupt, ends. And it can be in the company of another company from Vigo: Grupo Iberconsa has entered the shortlist strongly and would be in a position to close the agreement “next week”, as FARO was able to verify. Iberconsa is owned by the North American giant Platinum Equity, a fund that has more than 33,400 million euros in assets under management.
This, that of the owner of Iberconsa, is the third way in which Juan Carlos Escotet’s team is working, with the advice of Rothschild, in order to proceed with an “imminent” divestment of most of the capital. A reduction that would leave his future participation below 50% of Nueva Pescanova, which would also allow him to withdraw the fishing company’s liabilities from his balance sheet. “The operation is practically ready,” confirm other sources in the sector, who assume that the Platinum company will leave the other two competitors without options: the Canadian Cooke Inc. and the American Red Chamber. To questions from FARO, neither the financial institution nor the American fund – founded by billionaire Tom Gores, who also owns the Detroit Pistons NBA basketball team – wanted to offer an assessment of these negotiations. If crystallized, both firms would add assets of more than 1,700 million euros; In the last consolidated fiscal year, they invoiced a total of 1,600 million euros, with an Ebitda also combined (at the end of 2021) of 140 million.
This third way is what they longed for from the property of Pescanova, in order to have a safe anchorage of the group in Galicia. A separate issue is the synergies, but also the duplicities that emerge with an integration, and not only in Spain. Pescanova has manufacturing activity in Chapela, O Porriño, Arteixo, Paterna and Catarroja, as well as central offices, cold logistics (now outsourced), farming plants in Xove, an R&D research center in O Grove and a project intensive octopus farm in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Iberconsa has a processed factory on Spanish soil (Bouzas), a huge refrigerated logistics muscle (Frigalsa and Protea) and its ‘headquarters’ (Teis). The two, likewise, with penetration in a large part of the large ‘retail’ companies. A corporate operation of these characteristics would result in a shipowner with more than 110 ships, in a partially renewed fleet but with old units still in Namibia or Argentina.
In these two countries its presence is very strong. In the case of the African fish, most of Pescanova’s activity is carried out in the port of Lüderitz, in a plant supplied by freshwater vessels, with another factory in Walvis Bay specializing in already frozen catches. The dozen Iberconsa vessels in the Namibian fishing ground operate in the second dock, with quotas renewed until 2027. Iberconsa is the global leader in frozen hake on board, which is produced both in Namibia and Argentina, and is also the leader in catches in the shrimp fishery. If this purchase is consummated, Platinum would take over the leadership in extractive capacity of the Latin American fishing ground. And the ‘private equity’ would star, for the second time, the second largest operation in the history of this sector in Spain, given that the last transfer of Iberconsa was carried out – without counting the debt – for 512 million euros. In ‘stand by’ remain, “for the moment”, the purchase options on Mascato, also from Vigo, for which a final agreement was not reached, influenced actors familiar with the contacts.
That the property of Iberconsa be made with Nueva Pescanova won’t leave Cooke or Red Chamber empty-handed. The first announced last week the purchase of the North American Slade Gordon, one of the main references in the country for frozen fish. The second, with a ship under construction in Armón (‘Patagonia Queen’) within its organic expansion process, also in Argentina.