September 21, 2023
Sealord confident fish deal will pass watchdogs
Sealord chief executive Doug Paulin doesn’t expect any major problems from regulators over the purchase of Independent Fisheries.
The privately-owned Lyttelton-based business is the fourth largest deepwater fishing company running three large trawlers and exporting most of its catch.
Mr Paulin says it’s the biggest transaction in the industry since the 1992 Fisheries Settlement that allowed Maori to buy into Sealord.
Because the deal is worth over $100 million and Sealord is half-owned by Japanese seafood corporation Nissui, it needs to be cleared by the Overseas Investment Office
“We don’t believe that will be a major hurdle for us and of course the Commerce Commission is involved just because of the scale in terms of the amount of quota we will own. We don’t believe we will be a dominant player at the end of that. There’s still significant other major players and for the other purchasers nothing too much would change if it wasn’t Sealord involved so we’re also pretty confident that the Commerce Commission will give us their consent but at the end of the day you’ve got to go through the process,” Mr Paulin says.
He says along with Moana’s deal to fish Sanford’s North Island inshore quota, Maori now have the scale in the industry where they should be the first party government should sit down with when changes to fishing rules are considered.