May 11, 2016

Cooke Aquaculture, a leading player in salmon farming on the East Coast of the U.S., announced it has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Icicle Seafoods from Paine & Partners, which acquired the company in 2007.

The deal “was a while in coming” Cooke Seafood’s Vice President of Communications, Nell Halse told Seafood Source, adding that the two sides expected the transaction to close in 30 days or less, following regulatory and legal clearance. “It was a very complicated deal, and so it’s not unexpected for that to take some time to work out all the details,” she said.

The transaction includes three Icicle Seafoods production and processing units with output of 150,000 tons annually– wild caught salmon, groundfish, and farmed salmon, and will significantly strengthen Cooke’s position within the seafood industry, creating a group of companies that will produce more than 275,000 tons of seafood generating $1.8 billion annually. It will also give Cooke its first foothold in the Pacific Northwest, according to Alaska Dispatch News, and will position Cooke as the only company in the world that is active in farming salmon while also being a major presence in the wild salmon industry.

Given Cooke’s global network of distribution and cold storage facilities, the acquisition of Icicle will broaden Cooke’s year-round offerings to include wild salmon, black cod, pollock, rockfish, crab, farmed salmon and additional products from the Wachese Fish Company.

“A year ago [we] bought Wanchese, and like that purchase, this gives us a huge opportunity for synergy through our marketing and distribution channels,” Halse told Seafood Source.

U.S.-based Wanchese, which is a wild catch scallop and seafood business that includes operations in Argentina, was acquired by Cooke in 2015 from the Daniels family for an undisclosed amount according to Undercurrentnews.

Ms. Halse told Alaska Dispatch News that Cooke intents to keep the existing management team and suppliers in place at Icicle and it intends to make capital investments into the company’s growth.

“The Icicle team is excited about the opportunity to join the Cooke family of companies and to be able to focus on the expansion of our footprint in Alaska,” said Christopher Ruettgers, CEO of Icicle, in a company statement.

“Cooke provides Icicle with a long-term owner that is dedicated to the seafood industry. The partnership with Cooke also means access to capital to further modernize our platform, expanded market access for the products harvested by our fleets and a broader product offering for our customer base.”