The sale of Ventisqueros salmon assets in Chile has been closed after a lower bid than expected

The sale of Ventisqueros, a Chilean salmon producer, has been suspended after a lower than expected bid. The parent company may consider changes to its business strategy to keep the Chilean assets.

On Friday, German parent Schorghuber Group confirmed the completion of Ventisquero's asset restructuring and that Ventisqueros will focus on increasing production capacity, which is expected to grow to 55,000 tons this year.

Schorghuber hired Rabobank as an intermediary to find potential buyers for Ventisqueros, with bids from Brazilian meat giant JBS, Chilean producer AquaChile and Mowi, the world's largest salmon company.

But UCN sources said the potential buyers had been told by Schorghuber to suspend their bids on the grounds that their offers were not in the interests of the sellers.

Schorghuber, who owns real estate, hospitality and food and beverage assets, has recently focused on the performance of the Ventisqueros asset, with high expectations. "However, last year the global economy was in crisis and macroeconomic changes had a huge negative effect on international financial markets. Despite strong interest from buyers, Ventisqueros continued to struggle to sell its assets, with investors offering significantly less than Schorghuber's value expectations." Schorghuber said.

As a result, Schorghuber decided to hold on to the Ventisqueros assets to capitalize on the positive momentum in salmon farming to further increase production.

"The Schorghuber family has maintained a responsible and pragmatic management style since taking control of the company over twenty years ago," says Jose Luis Vial, CEO of Ventisqueros. They have the same evaluation model for every investment, most of which are decades old."

In 2022, Ventisqueros made a pre-tax profit of 7.2 million euros on annual revenue of 155 million euros and sold 35,582 tons of salmon. Last year, Schorghuber invested $25.3 million in Ventisqueros to expand production, use the latest environmental technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and obtain Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification for all of its salmon products.