Pontevedra, Spain-based integrated seafood company Nueva Pescanova posted a 73 percent increase in its EBITDA in the first half of this year as it continues to recover from poor financial performance.
The company posted an EBITDA of EUR 27 million (USD 31.7 million) in H1 2025, up from the EUR 15.6 million (USD 18.3 million) it posted in the same half of 2024. Overall sales also increased by 7.9 percent, reaching EUR 490.9 million (USD 577 million).
The company said its losses were reduced by 65 percent in the period, and the combination of EBITDA and sales growth are a sign its recovery plan is working.
Nueva Pescanova implemented a recovery plan in 2023 at the same time as it hired Jorge Escudero as its new CEO. That recovery plan was oriented around returning the company to profitability and was in progress in the 2023-24 financial year.
In its 2023-24 full-year results, the company posted a loss of EUR 131 million (USD 154 million) but said that the strategic and operational measures that the company had adopted were reversing negative trends. That was followed by revenue increases in its next fiscal year.
Now, in 2025, the company has posted even larger increases in revenue and said improved operational efficiency measures, initiatives focusing on enhancing profitability, a new commercial strategy, and more have helped the company’s turnaround.
“The half-year results confirm the company's forecasts, meaning that the Group remains on track to achieve a positive net result,” Nueva Pescanova said. “Overall, the company continues to meet its targets and advance in its recovery, maintaining its strategy to strengthen its financial position and consolidate improvements in the coming months.”
Nueva Pescanova returning to positive net results would be a reversal of fortune after a complicated few years which almost saw the company sold to Cooke. Abanca, the Spain-based bank that owns nearly 98 percent of Nueva Pescanova, was facing pressure from banking regulators to sell the company after it upped its ownership in the firm in March 2020.
Cooke reportedly entered negotiations to purchase the company in February 2023, and Abanca was also considering a sale of the company to Iberconsa. Ultimately, Abanca settled on a sale to Cooke in April 2023, but that deal fell through soon after in July after Cooke lowered its offer for the company after the company reported lower earnings than expected for 2022.
The company blamed the string of losses on “inflation, a historic fall in the price of shrimp, and the climatic effect of El Niño.”
