National Fish and Seafood owes its creditors USD 80.4 million (EUR 71.5 million), it said in a bankruptcy filing on 29 May. The longtime Gloucester, Massachusetts-based processor also revealed that Pacific Andes International Holdings owes NFS more than USD 30 million (EUR 26.7 million).
Around two weeks ago, NSD Seafood Group bought the assets of NFS for USD 3 million (EUR 2.6 million) and renamed the seafood manufacturer and processor Atlantic Fish and Seafood. The new leadership team had the company operational within a week and said Atlantic Fish expected to ship orders of Matlaw’s stuffed clam products to retailers by the end of May.
NFS is attempting to get the money it claims it is owed by PAIH included as a late claim in PAIH’s bankruptcy filing, which was filed in 2016. On 23 May, NFS assigned the Pacific Andes claims to Rabobank in exchange for a USD 7.5 million (EUR 6.7 million) reduction of the Rabobank debt.
Secured creditors make up more than USD 64 million (EUR 57 million) of NFS’s liabilities, while priority unsecured claims total nearly USD 7.4 million (EUR 6.6 million) and nonpriority unsecured claims make up nearly USD 9 million (EUR 8 million).
Two of NFS’s creditors, Singapore-based Crustrade PTE and Indonesia-based PT Bumi Menara Interusa, which sued NFS for more than USD 5 million (EUR 4.4 million) owed for seafood shipments, will now have to wait to see whether they will be paid.
“We can’t do anything at this point. The bankruptcy court stays all actions against the debtor, until the trustee figures out what to do,” Kurt Olson, attorney for Crustrade and PT Bumi Menara Interusa, told SeafoodSource.
A meeting of NFS’s creditors will be held on 2 July, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts, at 9:30 a.m. Proof of claims are due by 7 August, 2019.
John O. Desmond of Framingham, Massachusetts was appointed interim trustee in the NFS bankruptcy proceeding. Among the numerous creditors with unsecured claims are: Crustrade, Channel Fish Processing, PT Bumi Menara Interusa, Gorton’s of Gloucester, Northern Ocean Marine, and Evergreen Aquatic Products Science and Technology.
NFS also revealed payments to its primary executives up to one year before the bankruptcy filing, including former director Jack Ventola, now serving prison time in his tax evasion case, who received USD 190,546 (EUR 169,308). Meanwhile, NFS President Todd Provost – who maintains a leadership position at the new Atlantic Fish and Seafood – was paid USD 445,943 (EUR 396,238).
Payments made to NFS’s creditors include: EDA Inc., around USD 1.9 million (EUR 1.7 million); Arctic Fresh Seafood, around USD 537,000 (EUR 476,800); Northern Ocean Marine, around USD 440,000 (EUR 390,700); Newly Weds Foods, around USD 372,000 (EUR 330,300); NSDJ Real Estate (part of the new NSD Seafood ownership), around USD 357,000 (EUR 317,00); Pola Minerals Ltd., around USD 337,000 (EUR 300,000); Catania Spagna, around USD 305,000 (EUR 270,800); Goal Line Foods, around USD 227,000 (EUR 201,600); Head of the Harbor Realty, nearly USD 114,000 (EUR 101,200); Channel Fish Processing, around 24,000 (EUR 21,300); and Doran Seafood, around USD 21,400 (EUR 19,000).
