On December 5, Iceland Seafood International announced that it had signed a Letter of Intent ('LOI') "with a respected industry player" to sell its subsidiary Iceland Seafood UK Ltd. In a note made public today, Monday, the company has announced that it is cancelling the negotiations with this anonymous UK buyer.
The company said at the time that the LOI was a legally non-binding document, but that its provisions served as key terms in the event of a potential transaction. The parties had agreed to conduct a fast-track process with the goal of completing a binding agreement before the end of December.
"Negotiations that were based on the LOI were not successful and have been cancelled", Iceland Seafood has now stated. The company has added that it will communicate with other interested parties and provide information as appropriate if any of these communications develop into a formal discussion.
In March 2020, just before Covid-19 began, Iceland Seafood UK invested in operational facilities in Grimsby, merging its Bradford and Grimsby operations at this location. Covid, Brexit, and difficulties in general operations greatly affected the factory renovation and installation, so the company decided to leave this market.
At that moment, the company stated that they had concluded that the UK operation was no longer strategic for them. However, Iceland Seafood has always maintained that "the excellent facilities and strong management team in Grimsby can be a great addition to other companies in the sector".
Iceland Seafood International is one of the largest exporters of fish products from Iceland. With a team of over 620 people, the company is an industry-leading supplier of North Atlantic seafood and a leading service provider in its markets, moreover a key processor of high-quality seafood in the Spanish and UK markets.
