Canadian company Cooke is acquiring Australia's largest salmon producer, Tassal for AUD 5.23 (USD 3.67) per share. Prior to this transaction, Cooke already owned 10.49% of Tassal.
Tassal is the largest vertically integrated seafood producer and blue agri-tech business in Australia. With over 36 years of experience, Tassal employs over 1,700 people in Tasmania and Australia who farmed 40,000 metric tonnes of Atlantic salmon and 5,500 metric tonnes of black tiger prawn in 2021 for domestic and export markets including Asia, New Zealand and USA.
Tassal’s salmon farms span five marine zones, four freshwater hatcheries and four processing facilities in Tasmania, while prawn farming, processing and seafood processing is undertaken in New South Wales and Queensland.
“Our family-owned company is keen to have the opportunity to continue to grow Tassal from the strong base the employees, management and board have created,” said Cooke. “We have demonstrated acquisition history where Cooke has left operations management in place for continuity. We are highly impressed with the quality of Tassal’s infrastructure, people and culture.”
At 115,000 metric tonnes annually, Cooke is the sixth largest farmed salmon producer in the world. The Tassal acquisition would put Cooke at 155,000 metric tonnes — closing in on becoming a top five producer.
