Nippon Suisan Kaisha : Acquisition of Capital in Seafarms Group Ltd., page-78

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Japanese take stake in $1.5bn prawn farm


Seafarms company secretary Harley Witcombe at Lejune station, NT. Picture: Aaron Francis

• The Australian
• 12:00AM May 24, 2018
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• Sue Neales
  
  Reporter - Rural/Regional Affairs
  @BushReporter

The $1.5 billion venture in Australia’s far north to build one of the world’s biggest prawn farms — at coastal Legune Station on the Northern Territory-WA border — received a shot in the arm yesterday with Japanese seafood giant Nissui buying a major partnership stake in the listed Seafarms Group.
Nissui (Nippon Suisan Kaisha) paid $24.99m for 15 per cent of Seafarms shares, valuing the company at an effective $167m, well above its current capitalisation value of $92m, subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
In return, Nissui will take a seat on the Seafarms board, headed by chairman and major shareholder Ian Trahar, and a guarantee in perpetuity to take between 10-20 per cent of the premium black tiger prawns produced by Seafarms’ Project Sea Dragon.
When Project Sea Dragon at Legune station is built and operating at full capacity — the first stage of 1200 hectares of prawn ponds are under construction — it will have 10,000 hectares of ponds built on the station’s coastal flood plains yielding 100,000-150,000 tonnes of tiger prawns annually, valued at $1.7 billion.
Nissui has also locked in 15 per cent of production from Seafarms’ smaller Queensland prawn farms near Cardwell, a commitment to be a major shareholder in the group for longer than three years and a guarantee that it has first right to acquire the Cardwell farms if Seafarms fails to develop Project Sea Dragon on time.
Seafarms’ north Queensland farms produce more than a third of all Australia’s farmed prawn production, with Nissui locking in 2000 tonnes a year to export back to Japanese markets.
Mr Trahar described the agreement with Nissui as “company-making” as well as providing much-needed capital to help develop the remote Legune station project.
“Nissui will become one of Seafarms’ largest shareholders and will assist in the development of Project Sea Dragon; this aligns the commercial interests and global seafood expertise of one of the world’s largest seafood companies with SFG,” Mr Trahar said.
Nissui president and CEO Akiyo Matono said the company was satisfied that the prawn farming project in the Northern Territory would proceed, with its first harvest of 10,000 tonnes of black tiger prawns expected in 2021.
Mr Matono added that despite a declining trend in the Japanese prawn market, US, European and Chinese markets were expanding, with the bigger black tiger prawns from Australia much preferred to the dominant shrimp from Vietnam and China.
Seafarms shares jumped 12 per cent yesterday to 7.4c, despite the Nissui purchase valuing the stock at closer to 10c.