Listing to help Sea Harvest grow
Sea Harvest Group will float up to 38.7% of its issued share capital on the JSE to selected institutional and private investors. The company, which intends to list on the main board on March 23, hopes the move will support its strategy of becoming a well-known global player in the seafood sector.
Sea Harvest Group will float up to 38.7% of its issued share capital on the JSE to selected institutional and private investors.
The company, which intends to list on the main board on March 23, hopes the move will support its strategy of becoming a well-known global player in the seafood sector.
In a pre-listing statement released on Monday, Sea Harvest said it intended to sell about 92-million shares at between R12 and R14.50, or a maximum of R1.3bn.
“The rationale behind the listing is to provide the group with additional capital to support management’s strategy of continuing to invest in the current business to improve margins and grow organically; and support the group’s strategy of becoming a diversified global seafood company through value-creating acquisitions,” the company said.
Brimstone Investment Corporation, the JSE-listed, blackowned, black-controlled and black-managed investment holding company, holds 92.9% of the shares in the group, with management and staff holding the remaining 7.1%.
Brimstone is expected to remain the controlling shareholder after the listing with an interest of more than 50%.
Sea Harvest has operations in SA and Australia. On the domestic front, Sea Harvest is the leading frozen fish brand in both retail and food service with market share of 36.7%.
In the year to end-December 2016, the group reported a 41% increase in turnover to R1.9bn. Net profit more than tripled to R131m compared with the yearearlier period.
Sea Harvest will be the second fishing company to debut on the JSE in 2017 following the listing of Premier Food and Fishing last week. Its market capitalisation will be about R3.4bn.
Premier Food and Fishing, a subsidiary of African Equity Empowerment Investments, has a market capitalisation of about R2.4bn. Oceana has a market capitalisation of R15.4bn.