Alaska's Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC), Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF) and Maruha Nichiro, the largest seafood company in the world, will acquire nine Alaska pollock fishing vessels as well as Canada-based Cooke's Northern Victor.
The newly expanded partnership includes shared ownership of 4 percent of the Bering Sea pollock quota, bringing the total inshore pollock quota owned jointly by the three companies to just over 8 percent of the overall non-Community Development Quota (CDQ) fishery in the Bering Sea.
Westward Seafoods, a subsidiary of Maruha, purchased whitefish processing assets of Cooke-owned Icicle Seafoods and Evening Star as well under the deal. The largest asset is the Northern Victor, a stationary processing plant permanently moored in Alaska's Dutch Harbor.
Antarctica Advisors served as the exclusive M&A advisor to Cooke in the transaction.
Their most recent investment, Bering North, a partnership between BSAI Ventures, which includes CVRF and NSEDC and Maruha Capital Investment, agreed to purchase the fishing vessels from Evening Star Fisheries, which include the following vessels: American Eagle, Commodore, Half Moon Bay, the Hickory Wind, the Ocean Hope 3, the Patricia L, the Progress, the Storm Petrel, and the Sunset Bay.
The 380-foot Northern Victor -- built in 1945 -- has been permanently docked in Dutch Harbor in Unalaska since 2018.
The vessels are also allowed to deliver a small percentage to other processors as well. The two CDQ companies will be 75 percent owners of the combined operations, as well as the managers of the vessels and fishing activities. Maruha is a 25 percent owner.
This is the second investment CVRF, NSEDC and Maruha Nichiro have made via the partnership.
In 2011, CVRF and NSEDC, through subsidiary Siu Alaska Corporation, formed BSAI Partners. Along with an affiliate of Maruha Nichiro, the companies purchased six inshore pollock vessels with just over 4 percent of the Bering Sea pollock fishery quota.
According to the Northern Victor Fleet Cooperative 2020 report to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), the cooperative vessels harvested 61,008 metric tons of pollock and 1,981 metric tons of cod in 2020.
A 2022 report from NOAA shows the Northern Victor Fleet Cooperative owns nearly 10.8 percent of the Alaska Bering Sea inshore allocation overall at 51,194 metric tons.
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Cooke vessel a major part of deal
Cooke acquired the Northern Victor as part of its purchase of Icicle Seafoods in 2016 from private equity group Paine & Partners, bringing a huge volume of additional wild salmon, Alaska groundfish and other species into the company's vast empire.
Though Cooke is today one of the most globally diversified seafood companies by both geography and species, salmon farming remains the engine that drives the company, and at the time of the Icicle acquisition, CEO Glenn Cooke told IntraFish the company's initial interest in Icicle was its Washington State salmon farms.
In May 2020 Cooke reached an agreement with owners of Seattle-based Icicle Seafoods and Ocean Beauty Seafoods to merge the two groups' Alaska salmon operations into a new company, OBI Seafoods.
Though some groundfish business was included in the creation of OBI, the Northern Victor and another processing vessel, the Gordon Jensen, were not part of the deal.
A win for Alaska residents
Both NSEDC and CVRF use fishing earnings to fund economic development programs for Alaska residents.
NSEDC represents 15 member communities and more than 8,700 people in the Bering Strait region of Northwestern Alaska. It owns at-sea and shoreside processing operations for Alaska pollock, cod, crab and groundfish.
Last October, NSEDC and subsidiary Siu Alaska Corporation, acquired a controlling interest in Glacier Fish Company, one of Alaska's leading suppliers of pollock.
CVRF is one of the largest seafood operators headquartered in Alaska. It also owns quota for halibut, cod and pollock and crab.
Last year CVRF and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC) completed significant crab industry acquisitions to bring new revenues to Western Alaskan communities.
Community Development Quota (CDQ) groups represent Alaska's coastal Bering Sea communities and hold 10% of most all Bering Sea fisheries quota.
CDQ groups acquire this quota for free, and lease it out to resident fishermen, fishing companies, and vessels owned by the CDQs themselves. Their most notable holdings are in pollock, groundfish and crab.
Six CDQ groups represent 65 communities within 50 nautical miles of the Bering Sea coast:
● Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC)
● Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association (YDFDA)
● Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF)
● Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (BBEDC)
● Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association (APICDA)
● Central Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association (CBSFA)
SOURCE: http://akfish.org/
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