He is worth several hundred million kroner and is among the five largest landowners in North Jutland.
But agricultural investor Henrik Hougaard must now, together with a number of other shareholders, collect a massive loss on a failed venture in China.
Here, the company behind a large pig farm, Scandinavian Farms Invest, has gone bankrupt after losing at least half a billion kroner in a few years.
This is stated by one of the owners, the Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), in a press release.
A failed sale
Back in December, Scandinavian Farms Invest was taken under reconstruction in an attempt to avert bankruptcy, but the mission failed.
– The shareholders worked until the end on a reconstruction and sale of the company. However, it could not be implemented, and therefore the shareholders have chosen to file a bankruptcy petition in China, it says.
Scandinavian Farms Invest operated a large pig farm on the Yellow Sea between Beijing and Shanghai in China. The farm was among the country’s most efficient.
Just not to make money.
A combination of difficult market conditions, where feed prices have risen while the price of pork has fallen, a corona pandemic and an outbreak of African swine fever that cost the lives of the entire pig herd, have turned the pig farm into a thunderous loss-making business.
The total loss since 2018 amounts to DKK 570 million.
More North Jutland in the ownership circle
The owners have added money several times to maintain the operation, but now their patience has run out.
The herd of pigs has been liquidated, operations have ceased, and all companies in China have filed for bankruptcy.
And the ownership group has no further comments, reads the press release.
In his time, Henrik Hougaard and his family made a fortune selling the Sæby company Skiold, which produces stable furniture.
Archive photo: Martin Damgård.
The bankrupt company has several people from North Jutland in the ownership circle.
That is, in addition to Henrik Hougaard, Jesper Spanner Sørensen and Jannie Spanner Kristiansen from Hirtshals.
In addition, the brothers Claus and Hans Otto Ewers as well as J. B Møller Holding, the Investment Fund for Developing Countries and the Growth Fund.
Discord in the ownership circle
Back in December, Henrik Hougaard said in connection with the company’s reconstruction that two of the owners would like to provide the necessary liquidity to take the company forward.
– The others don’t want to, he told Børsen.
Søren Christensen Volder, partner at Bech-Bruun, was put in charge of the process of reconstructing Scandinavian Farms Invest.
All options were in play – from new investors to taking out loans.
– We hope to be able to find a buyer. Right now, only sales are on the agenda, said Søren Christensen Volder to Nordjyske.
That sale never came.
Before production at the pig farm in China was stopped, the full capacity was 15,000 sows with an annual production of 60,000 breeding animals and 360,000 slaughter pigs.
The company was founded back in 2012, and the purpose was to explore the Chinese market for pork, which is the world’s largest.
It has not been possible to obtain information on how much each individual shareholder loses from the bankruptcy.
2024-03-19 19:35:39
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