Emergent Cold Latin America (Emergent LatAm), Latin America’s newest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics provider, announced today the acquisition of Friopacífico, the leading cold storage business in Chile and an integral part of the country’s thriving fishing and fruit industries. This acquisition marks Emergent LatAm’s entry into Chile, a major global food export market. Joaquin Del Campo, General Manager of Friopacífico, will continue to manage the business as part of the Emergent LatAm leadership team.
Friopacífico operates over 47,000 pallet positions across three facilities located in Talcahuano and San Pedro de la Paz, close to the main ports in Chile’s Eighth Region of Biobío. The company provides a full range of storage and value-added services, including product haulage, reefer connections, online stock monitoring and photographic reporting. As part of the Emergent LatAm network, Friopacífico will embark upon an ambitious growth plan that includes additional storage capacity and blast freezing capability.
Chile is an essential part of the global food trade. It currently holds the world’s largest horse mackerel quota and is second in global salmon production. These exports and others such as mussels and trout are expected to grow in the coming years. Notably, Blumar Seafoods – a leading fishing and aquaculture organization – is part of the company’s prior ownership group and will remain as an important client of Friopacífico. In addition to seafood, Chile is a significant exporter of fruit.
“We are proud to welcome the Friopacífico team to our growing Latin American network,” said Neal Rider, CEO of Emergent LatAm. “Our company’s vision is to bring together the leading cold storage and logistics businesses across the region’s most essential global trading markets, which makes Friopacífico a perfect fit for our organization. I wish to thank Blumar and Inversiones Galletue for their trust as we move forward and support this important marketplace.”
For Blumar Seafoods, the acquisition of Friopacífico by Emergent Latam is great news, given its broad experience globally in cold storage and logistics. “We are confident that best in class technology and best practices will be incorporated into Friopacifico for the benefit of our operations," said Gerardo Balbontín, CEO of Blumar.
According to Mark Stengel, general manager of Inversiones Galletué, the fact that Emergent LatAm is one of the leading cold storage and logistics companies in the industry strongly influenced the decision to sell the company, thus ensuring continuity of the excellent service the company currently provides to its customers. In addition, he highlighted the company is expected to grow rapidly. The group was established around 20 years ago.
44 Capital Finanças Corporativas acted as financial advisor and NLD Abogados acted as legal advisor to Emergent LatAm. Debt financing for the transaction was provided by Scotiabank.
