Tassal shareholders back Cooke Inc.'s takeover offer

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Shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the $5.23 per share offer from Canadian-based seafood giant Cooke Inc. in Melbourne on Thursday morning.

The proposal was backed by 96.56 per cent of votes cast.+

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Tassal will follow Huon Aquaculture (Brazil) and Petuna (New Zealand) into foreign ownership.

It will continue a trend of Australian food businesses being bought by overseas interests.

Tassal's board recommended shareholders accept the offer.

That followed independent expert Kroll Australia concluding the offer was fair and reasonable and in shareholders' best interests in the absence of a superior offer.

The Cooke offer provided a 49 per cent premium to Tassal's closing share price of $3.52 on June 22.

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That was the last ASX trading day before media reports a company related to Cooke had bought a stake in Tassal.

The offer followed non-binding, indicative proposals from Cooke of $4.67, $4.80, and $4.85 per Tassal share.

The Tassal board rejected those overtures, arguing they did not reflect Tassal's fundamental value.

Tassal chairman James Fazzino on Thursday said the latest offer implied Tassal had an equity value of $1.1 billion and an enterprise value of $1.7 billion.

He said no superior offer had emerged and directors were not aware of one likely to emerge.

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The deal was opposed by various environmentalists, including regular salmon farming critic the Bob Brown Foundation, which protested at the Melbourne meeting.

"Cooke is looking to take over Tassal because the Tasmanian government is more than happy to allow the destruction of our beautiful rivers, bays and ocean for profit," Bob Brown Foundation fish farm campaigner Alistair Allan said.

"Despite a growing global movement of salmon farming being banned or phased out, Tasmania is opening the door to this environmental vandal."

Cooke chief executive Glenn Cooke in August said: "We understand completely that the Tasmanian fish farming industry is Australia's most valuable seafood production sector, and our top priority will be to work with other producers and government regulators on continuous environmental improvement plans, as well as strengthening supply chain and local community relationships."

"We intend to make strategic investments in engineering, science and technology to further enhance Tassal's capabilities, in addition to growing their sales reach through leveraging our worldwide seafood distribution channels."

Court approval of the deal is still needed, with a hearing scheduled for November 8.

The plan is for Tassal shares to be suspended from trading on November 9.

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