After being joint shareholders in Nova Sea for 30 years, it was announced in January that Vigner Olaisen would sell its 46% stake to Mowi.
Photo: Nova Sea.
The European Commission has given Mowi's acquisition of Nova Sea the green light. The salmon giant reported the update on the deal to acquire a majority stake in the fellow Norwegian salmon farming company in a statement sent to the Oslo Stock Exchange late on Friday.
It was on January 30 when the global salmon farming company announced it had signed an agreement to become the majority owner of Nova Sea, acquiring 95% of the company. In that same announcement, it also stated that this stake could increase to 100%, as it would make a voluntary cash offer on similar terms to shareholders who owned the remaining 5%.
In light of the EU Commission's notification nine months later, the Norwegian salmon giant achieved its goal of acquiring 100% of the company, as, according to the EU notification of September 22, within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation, Mowi will acquire sole control of the whole of Nova Sea.
Then, after examining the proposal, the European Commission expressed its doubts about the transaction, announcing that it would be subject to scrutiny. "On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation," the notification read.
Nevertheless, the notice also added that the final decision was reserved, and invited interested third parties to submit any comments they might have on the proposed merger within a maximum period of ten days from the date of publication of the notice.
Depending on the stage of the process, the European Commission had up to 65 working days to issue its final decision. However, as Mowi announced in its statement to the stock exchange on October 17, it finally issued it barely one month after its prior notification of a possible concentration.
"Mowi has today been informed that the EU Commission has approved the transaction. Now only approval by the Norwegian competition authority is still pending before the transaction can be closed," the statement read.
Thus, if the Norwegian authorities also give the green light to Mowi's acquisition of Nova Sea, under the terms announced in January, the former will pay NOK 7.4 billion (EUR 625 million) for the transaction, acquiring Vigner Olaisen's 46% majority stake through an agreement consisting of 30% in Mowi shares and 70% in cash.
As also announced then, for Nova Sea shareholders who own the remaining 5%, the voluntary cash offer would be on similar terms, for NOK 0.8 billion (EUR 68.47 million). Before January's agreement, Mowi was already one of Nova Sea's main minority owners since 1995, owning 49% of the company.
Since the deal was announced, quarter after quarter—as was the case in Q1 2025 and Q2 2025 —, Mowi's results reports have been pointing out that with the acquisition of Nova Sea, its projected harvest volume for 2025 in its northern Norway operations would increase to 157,000 tons, and to 367,000 tons in total for Norway. The ultimate goal within its strategy to achieve higher volumes is to harvest 600,000 tons next year.
