Eimskip Holdings Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned
subsidiary of Hf. Eimskipafélag Íslands announced today that Eimskip has
successfully completed its previously announced offer to acquire all the issued
and outstanding trust units of Versacold Income Fund. The aggregate acquisition
cost, including debt, is CDN$1,180 million.
Versacold has applied to de-list the Units and the
Debentures from the Toronto Stock Exchange and will apply to the Canadian
Securities Administrators to cease to be a reporting issuer.
The acquisition of Versacold fits well within Eimskip’s
long term strategy to build a worldwide network of temperature controlled
transportation and warehousing services. The Versacold facilities are
complimentary to Eimskip’s and the combined company will have a presence in the
temperature controlled transportation and warehousing services market in every
continent, except Africa.
Baldur Gudnason, CEO of Eimskip
commented:
“Versacold is a great company with a dedicated management
team that has enjoyed a number of successes and accomplishments that we intend
to build upon. I believe that Eimskip’s complementary and extensive operations
in shipping, trucking and storage will facilitate Versacold’s current plans to
expand their presence in public refrigerated warehousing, third party logistics
and transportation. The combination of our companies will allow us to pursue and
accelerate this vision, ensuring Versacold’s existing customers are offered the
same quality of service across an even broader spectrum of the supply chain.”
Brent Sugden, CEO of Versacold commented:
“This is an exciting time for Versacold as we join forces
with an expansive and quickly growing international transportation and cold
storage company. I am particularly pleased that we are joining forces with a
company that recognizes our accomplishments at Versacold and supports our plans
for continued growth. I am impressed with the drive and energy of Baldur and the
team at Eimskip, and I believe they are very well placed to accelerate the
expansion of our supply chain offering to existing and new customers.”
Eimskip worked with Toronto-based KingSett Capital to
structure and finance the acquisition.
KingSett, through KingSett Real Estate Growth LP No. 3,
provided structured real estate secured financing to the transaction.
RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisor to Eimskip
on the transaction and was the Sole Lead Arranger and Bookrunner on the senior
debt financing.
Bennett Jones LLP and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP acted
as legal advisors
