Seafarms Group (SFG) has successfully acquired all non-cash assets of Project Sea Dragon as it works to restart the stalled land-based shrimp aquaculture project in Australia.
SFG, through subsidiary Sea Dragon Shrimp (SDS), acquired the assets for AUD 750,000 (USD 530,000, EUR 445,000). The company first announced its plans to acquire the assets in November 2025 and that it planned to acquire the assets and begin the process of staging and permitting to develop a new shrimp farm.
“This purchase includes all licenses, approvals, and agreements that can be assigned or transferred to SDS, some of which require third-party approval. The company is currently working with all the relevant stakeholders to effect those transfers and assignments,” SFG said in a press release. “The company is applying for new licenses and approvals where those licenses cannot legally be transferred to SDS and has the full support of relevant governments.”
SFG said there is still one more outstanding issue with the acquisition: determining the ownership of funds currently held by the Australian Federal Court.
A federal court ordered the liquidation of Project Sea Dragon and the company and for its administration to be “brought to an end” in February 2024.
The court found that Project Sea Dragon and SFG abused the Corporations Act in Australia when it entered a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) between the two companies and then paid all of its creditors in full except for Canstruct – a construction company that successfully sued over AUD 13.9 million (USD 9.8 million, EUR 8.3 million) it said it was owed for work on Project Sea Dragon.
The end result of the court order was that the DOCA was terminated, the administration of the company was brought to an end, and Project Sea Dragon was wound up. A later attempt to appeal that ruling failed, resulting in the liquidation of the project.
SFG said during a court case in August 2025 that it tried to resolve the ownership of the funds, but the parties are still awaiting judgement, leaving them in limbo.
“While it is expected that the matter will be resolved in favor of the company, if the liquidators are successful, then those funds will form the cash assets of PSD to be distributed to creditors net of any final costs of the liquidation,” SFG said. “As Seafarms is the largest creditor of PSD, it will receive the majority of those funds in any event.”
Regardless of the outcomes of that court case, SFG said that after “several years of legal uncertainty,” the completed acquisition will allow it to secure new funding and develop the project “unhindered by uncertainty over its legal status and the time to resolve that.”
“The company is now actively engaged with several potential funders with the aim of securing project financing and a final investment decision within this financial year,” it said.
The company said that during the fiscal quarter ending 31 December 2025, it secured an increase in its finance facility from Avatar Finance to AUD 16.5 million (USD 11.6 million, EUR 9.8 million).
“A number of options are currently being pursued to fund the operations of the business until such time as SDS is successfully funded including the sale of certain assets and further borrowing,” SFG said.
