Pair cast joint net in bid for Sealord

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK

Seafood companies Sanford and Amaltal will try to hook half of Sealord, New Zealand's largest fishing company, after announcing a joint bid for Brierley Investment's 50 per cent stake yesterday.

Brierley announced earlier this month that it planned to sell its seven-year-old shareholding in Sealord, a stake estimated to be worth at least $200 million by market observers. The Waitangi Fisheries Commission holds the other 50 per cent.

Sanford and the Talleys/Amalgamated Marketing joint venture Amaltal will register their interest today through New Zealand Seafood Investments, a company formed by the pair to make the bid. Amalgamated is an Auckland-based trader of primary products.

"Sealord's in a business area that we know well. We think we've got the knowledge and expertise," said Sanford chief executive Eric Barratt, who has been keen for the company to acquire a stake in Sealord with Amaltal for more than 12 months.

While the proposed acquisition is almost certain to attract the interest of the Commerce Commission, Mr Barratt is confident the takeover will be approved.

"We would certainly ensure that Commerce Commission clearance would be obtained. We think that in terms of competing for respective seafood markets we don't compete with each other."

Sanford, which holds about 20 per cent of the national fishing quota, and Amaltal predominately supply overseas markets while Sealord, with about 23 per cent of the quota, packages seafood for the domestic retail market. Amaltal and Talleys jointly hold about 14 per cent of the quota.

Waitangi Fisheries commissioner Whaimutu Dewes declined to comment on the bid. The commission, which has been promoting the sale of Sealord to Maori groups and iwi through Ord Minnett and former New Zealand First MP Tutekawa Wyllie, has a right of pre-emption if it is unhappy with a potential business partner.

Andrew Mortimer, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston, said the bid was positive because it could promote consolidation in the companies' marketing, manufacturing and fishing operations if a deal went ahead.

"Any consolidation has got to be good for the industry. A foreign investor does not necessarily have any synergy with this market so you would think the natural combination would be made up in New Zealand."

Sealord chief executive Phil Lough, who was not available for comment, told the Business Herald earlier this week that the company was looking for a new business partner that would help it access new markets.

Several overseas companies are understood to have expressed their interest through Deutsche Bank, which is handling the sale.

Sanford, Amaltal and Sealord are already working together through a jointly owned company called SS Fishing, which is licensed to work in an Antarctic fishery.

Mr Barratt said Sanford's joint bid did not affect its $26 million, 14.8 per cent stake in Canadian company Fishery Products International.