Cooke to Acquire Uruguay Seafood Company

URUGUAY - Cooke Seafood Inc is looking to acquire the assets of Fripur S.A., Uruguay’s largest seafood company.

The final closing is expected to occur within the coming days, following completion of the required court approval process.

The Fripur acquisition is being completed through Perindes S.A., which is owned by the Cooke family.

Cooke has begun to repair the Uruguayan fishing vessels and the company anticipates a resumption of fishing operations early in 2017.

Fripur traditionally harvested approximately 16,000 tons of Hake (merlusa) and 1,600 MT Red Crab annually within the Uruguayan operations.

The acquisition of Grinfin, a subsidiary of Fripur based in Argentina, was completed several weeks ago and fishing has already started.

That purchase was made through Wanchese Argentina S.r.l., an entity owned by Cooke Seafood USA, Inc.

Grinfin ‎employs 70 people and the operation includes 3 large hake fishery vessels along with an office in Buenos Aires. Grinfin has a quota to fish 8,000 MT of hake per year in Argentina.