GSAM hooks 90% of fishing business Frøy

We’re starting off with a look at a take-private by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, as the firm moved closer to delisting a Norwegian fishing business.

Next, we have a deal in the metals sector involving an Oaktree Capital Management portfolio company.

We then round things out with the latest linkup between private equity and football, this time with Mountain Partners and FC Barcelona.

Net gain

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has completed its acquisition of NTS’ entire shareholding in Frøy, an Oslo-listed service provider to Norwegian salmon farmers, with more than 900 employees and a fleet of 80 vessels.

On top of the 72 percent of Frøy shares it bought from NTS, a wholly owned subsidiary of salmon producer SalMar, GSAM has other holdings, meaning it now owns nearly 91 percent of Frøy and must make a mandatory offer for all the remaining shares. That offer is expected to be resolved “on or about 16 August”, according to a statement.

The mandatory offer will be for NKr76.50 a share, the same as GSAM’s offer to NTS, which was announced on 5 June. It gave a total consideration of all Frøy’s shares of around NKr6.6 billion ($632 million; €577 million).

DNB Markets is financial advisor and Advokatfirmaet BAHR is legal advisor to NTS and Frøy.

Goldman Sachs International, Nordea Corporate Finance, and RBC Capital Markets are financial advisors, Advokatfirmaet Thommessen and Linklaters are legal advisors, and Sullivan & Cromwell is competition and FDI law advisor to GSAM.

Metals

Oaktree Capital Management portfolio company Tungsten Mining has agreed to sell Saloro, a Spanish tungsten producer, to EQ Resources (EQR).

Saloro is headquartered in Salamanca.

Oaktree will subscribe for 278 million subscription shares in EQR at an issue price of $0.09 per share, which represents around 30 percent premium to the 15 days VWAP, and amounts to an investment of $25 million, according to a release. The firm will have a holding in EQR of 15.86 percent at completion of the transaction.

Oaktree will also receive 78 million options with an exercise price of $0.10 per share, exercisable during the period of two years following the completion date.

“This partnership reinforces our conviction about the incredible opportunity presented in the tungsten supply space, and the need to secure sustainable and ESG-focused critical metals supply chains,” said Federico Alvarez-Demalde, MD at Oaktree.

Football

Rounding things out with some sport, and Spanish football club FC Barcelona has entered a definitive agreement with Mountain & Co. I Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company formed by the founders of Swiss investment firm Mountain Partners.

The deal values the pro-forma company at an enterprise value of around $1 billion and aims to list the club’s content creation platform Barça Media on the Nasdaq exchange.

The club could do with the extra cash. Despite being one of Europe’s most successful and popular football teams, Barcelona has struggled financially over the last few years, forcing it to sell some of its top players.

Private equity has of course become ever more interested in sports, including football.

At the end of July, we took a look at some figures from SportsBusiness’s report into private equity involvement in sport, including the revenues of LaLiga, the top level of Spanish football and where Barcelona plays. LaLiga signed a strategic agreement with CVC Capital Partners in 2021.