Aquaculture and genetics group Benchmark Holdings PLC (LON:BMK) is to take full control of its Chile-based salmon breeding joint venture.
Partner AquaChile was acquired by Agrosuper in January and talks have now started over the dissolution of the JV.
This will involve the return of Benchmark’s original equity investment together with its IP rights, the genetic stock and biomass and resources to operate the 50mln egg facility.
Benchmark will re-invest the money to build its presence independently in Chile, which is the world's second largest salmon producing country.
Malcolm Pye, chief executive, said: "We are pleased to have the opportunity to fully own the world-class salmon breeding facility currently owned by the JV and to reinvest the funds to move towards full-scale production and commercialisation.
"Whilst this marks a change to Benchmark's approach to the market, it is a positive step towards fulfilling our key objective of accelerating our establishment of a strong local presence in this important market, in line with our strategy."
In a note to clients, analysts at Numis Securities said “we understand that BMK is gaining control of Ensenada, a land-based salmon breeding operation owned by the JV, incl the operational team, IP rights, genetic stock and biomass in lieu of its £4m loan, and will also receive its £11.9m cash equity returned.”
They added: “Next visible news will be BMK’s interim trading statement (H1 end Mar) due anytime & we await this before making any changes to forecasts as a result of today’s news>”
Numis repeated a ‘buy’ rating and 92p target price on Benchmark Holdings’ shares, which in afternoon trading were 0.5p higher at 41.50p.
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