Kallimanis: Passes under the control of Turkish Dardanel by court decision

G. Kallimanis SA frozen fish processor, which once held a leading 25% share in the frozen fish industry, has officially passed to the Turks of Dardanel.

The Multi-member Court of First Instance of Aigio ratified the reorganization agreement from 29/11/2021, as amended on 21/1/2022.

Dardanel bought Kallimani’s loans for 6.05 million euros, i.e. at 10% of their value, and the Achaean company’s reorganization application was then filed with the Aigio Court of First Instance.

However, the “haircut” of Kallimani’s liabilities in some cases even reaches 97%, with the company’s liabilities totaling up to August 31, 2021 (the reference date of the balance sheet) to 88.35 million euros.

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Rescue time

The potential “white knights” for the rescue of Kallimani, in addition to the Turks, included investment fund SME Remedium Cap of Nikos Karamouzis, Bulgarian Impala of businessman Dimitris Vintzilaios (the new owner of Creta Farms), and another fund from the United Arab Emirates.

It was preceded by another “white knight” attempt, through Pillarstone’s troubled business management platform with restructuring consultant Konstantinos Frouzis, but at the end of 2018 he unexpectedly left and the attempt to save the frozen food company was left in the air.

In 2020, Kallimani’s turnover was 2.876 million euros. Turnover in 2019 was at 1.086 million euros, in 2018 at 4.43 million euros, in 2017 at 6.16 million euros and in 2016 at 31.976 million euros.

The company’s net losses in 2020 exceeded 5 million euros from 7.432 million euros in 2019.

Dardanel Önentaş

Dardanel Önentaş, with headquarters in Istanbul and factories in Çanakkale, is listed on the Turkish stock exchange, employs 828 employees and its turnover in 2019 amounted to 73.66 million euros.

The Turkish company was founded in 1984 by Niyazi Önen and today it is one of the biggest players in canned fish, mainly tuna, frozen seafood, fish meal, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, frozen prepared foods, pet food, etc.

Dardanel annually buys 25,000 tons of fish which it processes, it controls a 60% share of the branded canned fish market in Turkey and in the last five years the Dardanel Group has increased its sales by 30%.