Danish fishmeal company, TripleNine, will merge with the Norwegian Vedde AS company, with its subsidiary Lota in Chile January 1, 2013. Vedde is owned by the Norwegian family-owned business Koppernæs AS. TripleNine said the merger is in line with conversion from a cooperative to a limited company on 1st November 2012
Following the merger, the new company, which will be named TripleNine Group A/S, will have production facilities in Norway, Denmark and Chile, as well as owning 50% of a trading company in Norway plus affiliate companies in Mauritania, South Africa, Turkey and Greece.
\"The merger of the two companies is part of our plan to contribute to the consolidation of the industry worldwide, not only regionally,\" TripleNine\'s CEO Christian Bisgaard said. \"It will be a great strength for the new company to be represented in different parts of the world both in terms of security of raw material supply and also in serving our customers all over the world in the best way possible.\"
Bisgaard said the business strategies of the two comanies were a good fit. \"Like us, they have a strong interest in the continued development of the production of marine proteins and oils, including omega-3 oil for the health-food market.\"
\"Easy access to raw materials is crucial for the production of fishmeal and fish oil. For this reason TripleNine Group\'s future production facilities will be located as close to the raw materials as possible and also in different geographical areas so that supply can be maintained. New production facilities will only be started where raw materials are present,\" says Christian Bisgaard.
He added that efforts to secure supply of raw materials will also mean that the new company will aim for further co-ownership of fishing companies, in order for the TripleNine Group to have a more permanent connection to suppliers of raw materials. TripleNine Group is already part owner of fishing companies in Scandinavia, South Africa and Chile.
\"Our new production structure with Thyborøn in the south and Vedde in the north fits together really well and the amalgamation will further contribute to maintaining production in Thyborøn,\" said Christian Bisgaard.
TripleNine Group A/S will be a Danish company with headquarters in Denmark, and the Danish fishermen who today own the TripleNine cooperative will own 50% of the new company, while Koppernæs AS will receive the remaining 50%.
TripleNine sees the merger as strengthening its presence in China. Development manager, Yanqi Zhang Larsen, said that so far, the price of high protein content TripleNine fishmeal has been relatively high on the Chinese market. But when Peru reduced its quota to 81,000 tonnes, pushing global prices up, and with low stocks, many companies in China who want to buy - even at the higher price at which TripleNine supplies high-quality fishmeal.
\"And as they have just heard positive news from TripleNine about the merger, it means that I am getting a lot of inquiries from Chinese buyers at the moment,\" she said. \"The fact that the dollar exchange rate is also currently working in our favor means that we are now truly competitive on the Chinese market.\"
\"Based on this favourable situation for us, I expect a large increase in sales of fishmeal to China in 2013,\" she said.
