Paine & Partners and Icicle Holdings have entered into an agreement to sell Icicle Seafoods to Convergence Holdings and Dominion Catchers. Convergence will acquire Icicle’s land-based wild seafood processing and farmed salmon activities, and Dominion will acquire the company’s harvesting and processing vessels and associated fishing rights. Paine & Partners acquired Icicle Seafoods in 2007. The transaction is expected to close in August 2015.
Convergence is the latest company established by the Indonesia-based Soetantyo family, which has a long history in the food and canning industries in Asia and North America. Dominion Catchers is a Soetantyo family influenced company with the family owning 25% of the equity. The American Fisheries Act prohibits foreign companies from owning more than 25% of vessels 100 feet long or greater. Among Icicle’s assets are 11 ships that exceed this threshold.
Icicle Seafoods’ core business is the processing of seafood including wild salmon, pollock, halibut, cod, sablefish and herring in most major fisheries throughout Alaska, with both on-shore and floating processing facilities. Icicle also owns the largest United States owned and operated salmon farming company located in the Pacific Northwest. Icicle’s products are sold throughout the world into a variety of customer channels including industrial, food service, wholesale and retail. Icicle was founded as Petersburg Fisheries in 1965 and is headquartered in Seattle (www.icicleseafoods.com).
“Today’s announcement represents the culmination of Paine & Partners’ stewardship of Icicle,” said W. Dexter Paine, III, Chairman and CEO and a founding Partner of Paine & Partners. “We used our investments and expertise in the seafood industry to accelerate Icicle’s growth and help the company achieve its business goals. In Convergence and Dominion, the company will continue to have owners that will work with its management and employees to build on its successes.”
Paine & Partners provides equity capital for management buyouts, going private transactions, and company expansion and growth programs, for companies operating in the food and agribusiness industries. The firm currently makes investments through Paine & Partners Capital Fund IV, LP. The firm was founded in 2006 and has offices in New York, Chicago and San Mateo, CA (www.painepartners.com).
“On behalf of everyone at Icicle, I would also like to thank Paine & Partners, which has been a valued strategic partner over the last eight years,” said Chris Ruettgers, Chief Executive Officer of Icicle. “With Paine & Partners’ support, we grew our business, enhanced our operations and improved our ability to serve our diverse customer mix.”
2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 6-29-15
