October 12, 2018 — Clipper Seafoods and Blue North Fisheries’ shareholders are looking for an investor in a combined business to help finance a renewal of the fleet, but not for anyone to take a majority stake, sources familiar with their thinking told Undercurrent News.
The owners of Clipper and Blue North, the two largest US Pacific cod longline companies, are looking for an investor to come in and take a significant share of a combined company, “even up to 49.9%”, as one put it, but they’re not interested in getting out of the business. Part of the reason for seeking investment is fleet renewal, sources told Undercurrent.
In late August, Undercurrent reported the two had brought in Zachary Scott, a Seattle, Washington-based mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, to advise on a possible sale. Sources said a full sale could be a possible outcome, depending on the price, but it is not the preference of the shareholders, who want to stay involved.
Zachary Scott, which did not respond to a request for comment from Undercurrent, has sent an information memorandum on the combined companies to over 30 trade and investor players, sources said.
Dave Little, the main shareholder in Clipper, and Michael and Patrick Burns, who control Blue North, all pioneers of the longline fishery in Alaska, did not respond to a request for comment from Undercurrent.