New information suggests that Abanca, the owner of Nueva Pescanova, would return to the initial point for the shareholding sale. All this would be due to the price differences between the sale notebook published by the Spanish company and Cooke's external audit, which would have reduced the purchase price.
An agreement that started in the spotlight and still is now. El Faro de Vigo reported these details by which the formal agreement dated April 13 between the two companies would have fallen into an impasse.
According to the Spanish newspaper, the reason is the "significant price discrepancies" following the conclusion of the investigations on the sales notebook published by Pescanova. Also according to it, there would be different "incongruencies" concerning the external audit carried out by Cooke.
Therefore, after finding these differences, the Canadian company explained to Abanca that Nueva Pescanova "would need more money than expected at the beginning, which means that the amount would be substantially lower." The reduction would be from the initial EUR 150 million to 50 million (USD 165 million to 55 million), without the complete assumption of the debt -around 700 million (USD 772 million)- to give it an injection to take it off. As expected to assume the new offer was not well received in Galicia.
Thus, El Faro de Vigo explained that due to this situation, "sources close to the negotiations had already warned that the team of Juan Carlos Escotet – Abanca president – was willing to break off negotiations with Canada" and start from zero. Likewise, the Spanish media also stated that sources from the bank's environment pointed out that the contacts are suspended, not broken, due to the summer dates. However, it ended by clarifying that "both the sector and within the company prefer a return to the starting point," of which Cooke would not be part.
Nueva Pescanova is a leading Spanish multinational company in the seafood industry. Thus, they have a strong presence across the entire value chain, encompassing fish farming, processing, and distribution. In addition, they have operations in 80 countries, working with over 70 different species of fish and seafood.
Cooke is a family-owned and managed company that has operated a sustainable aquaculture business in Canada for over 35 years. The Cooke family of companies has diversified operations in Europe. Among them are Scotland, Northeast Nutrition Scotland, Cooke Aquaculture Spain/Grupo Culmarex, and Bioriginal Europe/Asia in The Netherlands.
