A family-owned Australian seafood brand is on the hunt for a strategic investor for the first time in its 60-year history.
Raptis Premium Seafood, Australia’s largest privately owned fishing company, has hired corporate advisory firm Kidder Williams to help in its search for either a majority or minority external investor.
If Raptis is successful, it would be the third major Australian seafood brand to be acquired by overseas investors in the last three years, following the purchase of Huon by Brazil-based JBS in 2021 and Tassal’s acquisition by Cooke Aquaculture in 2022.
Kidder Williams Managing Director David Williams said that interest has already arisen in the Raptis investment from “offshore fishers wanting a channel into the Australian market.”
Raptis is a vertically integrated company which owns and operates 19 commercial fishing vessels and sources wild-caught Australian seafood from fisheries throughout the country for use in its three brands: Ocean Pearl Australia, Seaport Premium Wild Caught Seafood, and Agrios Australian Wild-Caught Seafood. Its fleet operates in the Northern Prawn Fishery, the Northern Territory Demersal Trawl Fishery, the Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishery, and the Gulf St. Vincent Prawn Fishery.
Though now one of Australia’s largest privately owned companies, Raptis and Sons began as a fish and chip shop in Adelaide. The investor search comes after long-time Raptis CEO Arty Raptis left the company in 2023 after nearly 22 years with the firm. He is now the CEO of the Australian Reef Fish Trading Company.
