High Liner Foods, a Nova Scotia-based maker of frozen fish products, has agreed to be bought by Umios for more than $800-million.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Shares of High Liner Foods Inc. HLF-T skyrocketed to record highs on Monday after Japanese seafood giant Umios Corp. MRUHF offered more than $800-million in cash to buy the Nova Scotia company.
Thornridge Holdings Ltd., the private investment company for Nova Scotia’s Hennigar family, which is High Liner’s largest shareholder with a 41.4-per-cent ownership stake, has agreed to support the deal. However, the sale requires support from at least 75 per cent of votes cast at a shareholder meeting set for December in order to proceed.
Umios is offering $27 per share for the more-than-century-old Canadian seafood processor.
High Liner’s Toronto Stock Exchange-listed stock closed Friday at roughly $15 per share. Shares were up 77 per cent to $26.66 on Monday morning, just below Umios’s offer price.