Cargill to acquire fish feed producer from Bain and Altor for $1.5bn

Cargill, the food and agri giant, is set to acquire EWOS, a supplier of feed and nutrition for the international aquaculture industry from Altor Equity Partners and Bain Capital in a deal valued at €1.35 billion. The transaction is expected to close before the end of this year, according to a statement.

Altor Fund III and Bain Capital Europe Fund III acquired EWOS from Cermaq, a Norway-based salmon and trout farming group, for NOK 6.5 billion ($0.79 billion; €0.71 billion) in 2013 and established it as a standalone company. The investors outbid Permira for the company. EWOS now produces more than 1.2 million metric tons of salmon feed, Agri Investor learned.

This is the second aquaculture acquisition Cargill has announced in two months. In July the company formed a joint venture with Ecuador’s second largest shrimp producer, Naturisa, to build a shrimp feed facility in the country in a project said to be worth $30 million.

As part of this latest deal, Cargill will acquire seven feed manufacturing facilities and two research and development centers located in Norway and Chile.

“With the need for protein expected to grow by 70 percent worldwide by 2050, farmed fish and shrimp offers one solution to meeting this demand, and Cargill intends to play a major role in this growing and important market,” Sarena Lin, president of Cargill’s Feed & Nutrition business, said in a statement.