Linnaeus Capital Partners B.V. on Monday confirmed that its new aquaculture division, Tethys Ocean B.V., has acquired Selonda UK Ltd., the United Kingdom’s only sea bass farmer.
Selonda UK — which operates a recirculating fish farm in Anglesey, North Wales, with an annual production capacity of 1,000 metric tons — went into administration on 4 January. The farm was owned by Greece-based Selonda Group, one of the Mediterranean’s leading sea bass and sea bream producers.
Tethys Ocean will work to stabilize and streamline the Anglesey operation and then to develop and expand its production capacity as well as to move into processing and value-added activities through the provision of much-needed investment capital and management know-how.
“We are particularly pleased to have contributed to the rescue of the Anglesey company and in securing local employment,” said Anita Hamilton, managing partner of Linnaeus.
“Our move is based upon the Tethys Ocean vision to take the Mediterranean aquaculture sector in Europe to the next level,” she explained. “In this pursuit, we have been driven by the conviction that land-based aquaculture systems will play a key role in the future of global sustainable food production and the investment in Wales is an ideal platform for such development and fits strategically into Tethys Ocean. We believe that the key to the transition to a competitive aquaculture economy lies in strategic partnerships, the implementation of technological innovation and the adoption of robust corporate governance and transparency practices.”
Linnaeus Capital Partners is an Amsterdam-based private equity firm founded in 2009.
