BRUSSELS: Board of the Icelandic Group which owns Icelandic Seachill in the UK has decided to initiate a public sale process for its Belgian operations, Gadus.
Gadus specialises in the production and sale of fresh seafood to retailers and wholesalers. The company´s history spans over 25 years and it is the second largest fish processor in the Belgian fresh fish market.
It sells about 7,000 tonnes of product annually and is a category leader for large retail and cash and carry chains. Gadus’s revenues totalled approximately €83 million in 2016. The company employs 130 people. Íslandsbanki Corporate Finance has been mandated to manage the sale of all shares in Gadus.
Just before Christmas the Icelandic Group has reached an agreement for the sale of its subsidiary Ný-Fiskur, which specialises in the processing and sale of fresh seafood, to Nesfiskur ehf. The company’s trademark ‘Iceland Seafood’ is not included in the sale.
The sale of Ný-Fiskur is a part of the Iceland Enterprise Investment Fund’s plan to streamline the operations of Icelandic Group, which is fully owned by the Fund. Recently, the Fund sold another subsidiary, in Spain, of Icelandic Group to a producer in Iceland.
For the past 30 years, Nesfiskur’s main operations have been based in Garður, Iceland. Additionally, the company has operated freezing and fresh fish production facilities in Sandgerði, Iceland. The company has expressed an interest in continuing its operations in Sandgerði, Iceland.
Ný-Fiskur specialises in processing and sale of fresh seafood. The company uses approximately 6.000 tonnes of raw material annually. The forecasted revenue for year 2016 is ISK 3.000 million. A large part of the production is exported, by flight, to customers in Belgium and other European countries.
The Icelandic Group’s main processing operations are now in Grimsby, where Icelandic Seachill employs more than 1,500 people.