Oslo, Norway-based investment firm Bluefront Equity, which specializes in the seafood industry, has acquired a stake in In-Naggar, Malta-based aquaculture research and development firm AquaBioTech Group.
Launched in 2020 by Kjetil Haga and Simen Landmark, Bluefront’s core team includes former Mowi CEO Alf Helge Aarskog, Nova Sea Chairwomen Aino Olaisen, and former BioMar executive Jan Sverre Røsstad. Bluefront’s investment has been made through a combination of purchase of shares and new capital.
“The planned investment by Bluefront Equity will enable AquaBioTech Group to continue to rapidly develop its international expansion plans, including the opening of a major office in Norway and Singapore,” Bluefront said in a press release.
AquaBioTech was established in 1996 and now has more than 100 employees working on projects in 55 countries. It specializes in aquaculture-related projects from project feasibility assessments through to finance acquisition, project management, technology sourcing, and technical support and training. The company has three divisions: an aquaculture, fisheries and marine environment consulting, advisory, and training company; a contract research organisation (CRO) division used for testing, development, and certification of aquatic vaccines and shrimp and fish feeds for vetriceutical, nutraceutical, and aquatic nutrition companies; and an engineering and development division focused on the turnkey supply of recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) designed for a variety of fish and shrimp species, including salmon hatcheries, nurseries, and grow-out facilities.
In 2017, AquaBioTech Group helped to construct the Coppens Aqua Centre, owned by aquatic nutrition firm Alltech Coppens International, in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands. It was designed to provide the company the ability to run multiple simultaneous nutrition trials for a variety of species in highly controlled environments.
In March 2021, AquaBioTech partnered with the China Agricultural University and aquaculture firm Mingbo Aquatic Co. to research high-precision detection technologies for monitoring grouper and rainbow trout.
Bluefront Equity, which moved further into the aquaculture technology sector in May 2021 with the acquisition of Redox AS, did not clarify the percentage of its ownership stake in AquaBioTech, other than to call it “significant.”
Photo courtesy of AquaBioTech Group
