Paine & Partners confirmed today that its previously announced agreements to sell Icicle Seafoods to Convergence Holdings and Dominion Catchers have been terminated. This transaction was announced in late June 2015 and had been expected to close by the end of August 2015. No reason for the cancellation of the transaction was given by Paine & Partners.
Convergence Holdings 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’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 was acquired by Paine & Partners in 2007. The company is headquartered in Seattle (www.icicleseafoods.com).
Despite the cancelled transaction, Icicle has noted that its business and operations are performing well. Icicle is experiencing positive performance across its business units, driven by strong volumes during the 2015 wild salmon season and excellent operational performance of its Atlantic salmon business. Paine & Partners intends to reinitiate a sale process for Icicle upon completion of the 2015 salmon season.
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).
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 9-8-15
