Timpetra Resources announced it has acquired three fully established aquaculture businesses in New South Wales. The deal will enable the creation of a fully integrated Murray cod operation with complete control along the entire life cycle of the fish.

The acquisitions include:

~ Silverwater Native Fish, an 88-hectare hatchery operation with water licenses, fish shed, fish ponds, fish stock, and related plant and equipment, including hatchery tanks.

~ Bidgee Fresh Pty Ltd., a customized fish nursery that receives fish as fingerlings and grows them to “advanced stockers” stage, large enough to transfer to custom-built cages on the farm.

~ The 85-hectare Riverina Aquaculture, including six ponds and associated plant and equipment. Two ponds are equipped with cages and stocked with fish, and water licenses will be acquired. Timpetra will also acquire three purpose-built integrated cage systems to be used to expand production on the farm.

Under the terms of the three deals, Timpetra will pay a combined total $6.35 million in cash and will issue a combined 79,285,715 shares for the three operations. The company will also pursue a $10 million capital raise to fund the transactions and to expand the existing operations. Timpetra plans to sell fingerlings to contract growers who will then grow the fish on behalf of the company, and also plans to sell purpose-built cage systems to contract growers as well as sell fish on behalf of its contract growers.

“This has all the main ingredients of a great business,” said Mr. Ross Anderson, Chairman of Timpetra in a company statement. “It has quality people who have a proven innovative methodology of producing a high-quality product into a market with growing demand. There is almost no direct competition in either farmed or wild caught cod and barriers to entry are high. I believe this is the beginning of a major new industry in the Riverina area.”

Murray cod is a native freshwater fish to Australia, found only in the Murray-Darling Basin in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It is the largest freshwater fish in the country and one of the top freshwater fish in the world. Demand for the fish is high and there is no wild catch of the fish after populations were decimated by over fishing and habitat destruction.

In regard to the nascent potential for the Murray cod industry, the Department of Primary Industries for New South Wales states “In the past, most grow-out culture of Murray cod has been undertaken extensively in farm dams, as it was originally thought that the cod was unsuitable for intensive culture due to its aggressive and territorial nature. Trials by some NSW farmers have shown however that Murray cod do well in intensive recirculation tank systems. The stocking of fish at high densities reduces the opportunity for the cod to establish territories, and the aggressiveness towards other tank members is reduced. It is expected that this form of culture will expand rapidly over the next few years.”

Upon completion of the deals, Timpetra plans to ask shareholder permission to name the consolidated company, ‘Ponde Aquaculture Limited,’ as “Ponde” is the Aboriginal name for the Murray cod species.

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Lynda Kiernan