Bencis acquires Morubel

Morubel broke away from its parent and began trading as an independent company earlier this year after Heiploeg's Dutch activities went bankrupt.

Heiploeg had already mandated Rabo Securities to find a strategic buyer for Morubel at the end of last year; the Belgian company continued the search on its own following the split.

No changes in management or staff will take place due to the acquisition by Bencis.

Heiploeg's Dutch activities were declared bankrupt on 28 January this year. The company relaunched that day as Heiploeg International and became part of fish processing company Parlevliet & Van der Plas. Heiploeg's Dutch work force was cut by 60-70 as a result, while some 300 jobs were saved.

Heiploeg had been in choppy waters for a while before it went bankrupt. In November last year, the business was fined €27m by the European Commission for its part in forming a cartel alongside two other Dutch and one German shrimp processing companies.

The European Commission found that between 2000-2009, the four firms controlled around 80% of the European North Sea shrimp market and were fixing the prices of North Sea shrimp.

Heiploeg – which received almost all of the €28.7m issued to the four businesses – filed an appeal against the fine in December.

Heiploeg has been owned by private equity in the past. According to unquote" data, the business was acquired in February 1995 by Gilde Investment Management, ABN Amro Participaties, Rabo Private Equity, AlpInvest Partners, CVC Capital Partners and Noordelijke Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij.

The consortium paid around €76.3m for the company, comprising €30.5m in equity as well as €31m in debt and €11.9m in mezzanine finance from ABN Amro.

In June 2000, the syndicate sold Heiploeg to UBS Capital for €260m. ABN Amro provided a €200m senior debt package for the secondary buyout, with the balance supplied as equity by UBS.

Gilde reacquired the company in February 2006 via its €600m Gilde Buyout Fund III. The deal value was believed to sit around the €300m mark, with senior debt facilities provided by Rabobank and ABN Amro. Rabo Private Equity and Wagram Equity Partners invested equity alongside Gilde, according to unquote" data.

The firms exited the business through a €157m refinancing in June 2012 with Rabobank, ABN Amro and Frieslandbank.

Company
Originally founded in 1954 as La Morue Belge, Morubel became part of Heiploeg in 1999. Today the company employs 105 staff and generated turnover of €82m last year.

The business processes and supplies frozen seafood to the retail, food services and industrials sectors. Products include black tiger prawns, tropical wild-catch prawns, North Sea shrimp, vannamei prawns, squid, mussels, scallops, crayfish and seabob.

Morubel sources its shrimp in India, Indonesia, South America, Thailand, Vietnam and northern Europe, while its scallops, mussels and crayfish are sourced in Canada, Chile, Denmark, China and Spain.

As well as the Morubel brand, the company also owns the Seafood Delicatess and Elite brands for the retail and food services sectors respectively.

Morubel is headquartered in the Flemish coastal city of Ostend.

People
Morubel is headed up by CCO Nadine Verbruggen, CFO Gino Maus and COO Marc de Wulf. Bencis managing partner Lesley Van Zutphen, investment director Bart Rabaey and investment manager Pieter Bols worked on the deal. Van Zutphen and Rabaey have joined Morubel's board of directors.

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• Topics
• Benelux
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• Buyouts
• Belgium