New owners wind up FiiZK subsidiaries
A major restructuring of the troubled FiiZK group, a leading Norwegian supplier of closed and semi closed cage solutions for the aquaculture sector, has been completed.
The industrial technology company Nekkar and BEWI Investments have together acquired an 80% share in part of the business, which has been experiencing difficulties, and are now the two largest shareholders.
Nekkar and BEWI Invest AS announced their involvement through a joint investment plan.
The FiiZK range of products includes cage systems, water purification systems and software tools to optimise fish farming planning, operations, and analysis. It also has a base in Scotland which covers the UK and Ireland.
Nekkar has acquired part of FiiZK for NOK 50m (£3.7m) divided into two halves: one in cash and the other in the development of the Starfish, Nekkar’s fully automated, digitally, and remotely managed closed fish cage solution.
BEWI will invest NOK 25m (£1.85m) in cash. A number of additional minority shareholders will invest a further NOK 10m (£740,000) in the remodelled FiiZK group .
The deal will give BEWI Invest a 41% share and Nekkar a 39% share.
The new investors said following a restructuring process, the new FiiZK group will consist of three business units:
- Closed cage solutions for farming of fish.
- Technical textiles including tarpaulin-based products for fisheries, industry, agriculture and logistics. Aquaculture products include lice skirts, treatment tarps, disinfectant tarps, landing nets and freshwater depots.
- Digital, which incorporates a suite of software products for aquaculture planning, optimisation, and analysis.
Nekkar CEO Ole Falk Hansen said: “We are delighted to team up with BEWI Invest to jointly develop and position FiiZK for the expected future growth in closed fish cage solutions.
“The integration of FiiZK’s established market position and Nekkar’s Starfish technology strengthens the company’s position as the market leading provider of closed cage solutions and aquaculture software,” he added.
Nekkar’s expertise and experience complement us very well,” says Bjørnar André Ulstein, BEWI Invest CEO. “Both BEWI Invest and Nekkar will be active in developing FiiZK.”
Closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and should be completed next month.
Meanwhile, a number of FiiZK subsidiary operations were formally wound up in Trøndelag District Court yesterday.
They include FiiZK Ecomerden, FiiZK Closed Systems, FiiZK Holding, FiiZK Operational Services and FiiZK Group AS.
The Trondheim based group announced 30 redundancies in November last year, blaming a decline in business following the announcement of the new salmon tax.
