Clean Seas Tuna is seeking a strategic investor for its kingfish operations as it strives to identify the disease that is devastating its juveniles, writes Intrafish, quoting Clean Seas Tuna’s CEO Dr. Craig Foster.
The company is considering spinning off its kingfish operations into a 50/50 joint venture for which it is seeking an investment partner willing to invest between USD 12 and 14 million.
Suitable partners for the venture would ideally have experience in aquaculture, either from Asia or Europe, and would be interested not only in helping to rebuild the kingfish business in Australia, but also in potentially building up the business in other parts of the world.
According to Dr. Foster, the company has already stating discussions with parties in Europe about investing in the business.
As atuna.com reported on May 28th, Clean Seas Tuna announced it would post a loss of about USD 32 million this year caused by write downs and sickness amongst its kingfish stocks.
“At this stage we are just focusing on addressing the kingfish business, once we have got that addressed -depending on how it happens- whether someone goes in to Clean Seas Tuna or directly in the kingfish business, when we will look at further financing of tuna propagation. As long as we can continue to harvest our kingfish, we do not lose them too fast, we have sufficient cash reserves to see us into early 2013â€, Dr. Foster said.
Once the kingfish situation is addressed, Clean Seas is also considering looking for investment into its bluefin tuna business.