December 22, 2017

New Brunswick, Canada-based seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture has announced its largest deal to date in the U.S. with the acquisition of Omega Protein, a Houston, Texas-based fishing company that sources omega oils and nutritional proteins, for $22 per share, or $500 million.

“It’s the single largest acquisition [our] company has ever made,” Joel Richardson, vice-president of communications for Cooke, told CBC.

Founded in the early years of the 20th century, Omega operates more than 30 boats off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts near Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia, catching menhaden, a fish high in omega fatty acids. The company also includes seven manufacturing sites – five in the U.S., one in Canada, and one in Europe, and 1,000 employees.

“With over 1,000 employees and a purchase price of $500 million USD, Omega Protein is the largest acquisition in the 32-year history of Cooke,” added Glenn Cooke. “We started our family-operated company in 1985 and through the hard work of our employees have grown to become a fully integrated global seafood leader offering a wide array of farmed and wild-caught products to customers around the world.”

Over its hundred-year history, Omega Protein’s mission to provide products that lift the nutritional integrity of food, animal feeds, and supplements. Its addition to Cooke Aquaculture’s business will enhance Cooke’s vertical integration by providing animal feed ingredients that will boost the company’s production of Atlantic salmon.

“The acquisition of Omega Protein will help further diversify the supply side of our business and supports our strategy of responsible growth as a leader in seafood production,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc. “We are bringing together two innovative fishery teams with a passion for delivering superior products, service, and value to our customers in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner.”

Omega also recognizes the mutually beneficial nature of the deal.

“We are excited about the agreement, which we believe recognizes the value of Omega Protein’s successful, 100-year-old fishing business and also provides stockholders with an immediate premium,” said Bret Scholtes, president and CEO of Omega Protein. “Cooke is a family-owned company and in many ways, reminds us a lot of ourselves and this agreement is the perfect fit for the two companies. Cooke is a highly-regarded and responsible leader in the global fishing and seafood industry.”

Although family-owned, the tie-in with Cooke opens vast possibilities for the supply side of Omega Protein’s business. Cooke’s business includes global aquaculture divisions associated with both Cooke Inc. and its subsidiary Cooke Aquaculture Inc. and an additional Canadian aquaculture unit operated by Keely Cove Salmon. Cooke’s seafood divisions include Cooke Seafood USA; Icicle Seafoods Inc.; Cooke Aquaculture Inc., which is a vertically integrated corporation with operations in Black Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada and salmon production operations in Atlantic Canada, Maine, and Washington in the U.S, an in Chile and Scotland; and seabream farming operations in Spain. The company also entered the wild fishery industry in 2015, and owns wild fishery operations in the U.S. and Uruguay. With the addition of Omega Protein, Cooke’s total worldwide workforce will total approximately 6,000.

-Lynda Kiernan