Tag Archives: Bregal Partners
A fishing conglomerate created a fake company to facilitate a merger. It could now be on the hook for billions of dollars.
Commercial fishers are one of the professions that’s been nickeled-and-dimed in recent decades, right up there with long-haul truckers and chicken farmers. In New Bedford, Massachusetts, the most lucrative port for seafood catches in the country, a fisherman profiled by ProPublica in 2022 was forced to contract with one of the world’s seafood powerhouses, Blue Harvest, because it had become the only buyer in the local market. Per the contract, fishers have to lease fishing permits from the company; the costs for vessel maintenance, fuel, gear, and repairs on company-owned boats are taken out from fishers’ own paychecks, called settlement sheets. After fishing around the clock for ten days to meet quotas, Jerry Leeman only made 14 cents on the pound and his crew 7 cents, even as their haddock catch sold for $2.28 per pound at market. Blue Harvest took the lion’s share of earnings, while placing all the risks of the trade onto fishers. “Tell me how I can catch 50,000 pounds of fish yet I don’t know what my kids are going to have for dinner,” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:59
Massachusetts: Lawmakers call for answers in wake of Blue Harvest Fisheries bankruptcy sale
Questions continue to surround the bankruptcy and sale of Blue Harvest Fisheries, the largest groundfish operation in New England, including its impact on the New Bedford fishing industry. The New Bedford company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in September 2023. For U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Edward Markey (D-Mass) and Rep. William Keating (D-Mass) it’s part of a pattern, and they are seeking answers from Bregal Partners, a Dutch-owned private equity firm, and Blue Harvest’s majority equity holder that owned 89.5 percent of the company. more, >>click to read<< 08:05
Warren, Markey and Keating demand answers from Blue Harvest owners
“After years of putting private equity profits ahead of workers and small businesses, Bregal Partners — which owned and stripped Blue Harvest of its assets — owes the community an explanation,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep Bill Keating. They each signed the joint letter addressed to Gene Yoon, managing partner of Bregal Partners, which owned 89.5% of New Bedford-based seafood giant Blue Harvest Fisheries prior to the company declaring bankruptcy in September of 2023. “Bregal’s actions with respect to Blue Harvest have left local small businesses and workers holding the bag after your firm spent years price gouging, mistreating workers, saddling consumers with junk fees, and stripping assets,” the letter continued. “Your actions have harmed New England’s fishing industry and left over 1,000 independent contractors, businesses, and other creditors saddled with debt.” more, >>click to read<< 07:18
The collapse of fishing giant Blue Harvest exposes the weakness of catch share policies
In October 2023, wrecking crews finished scrapping the last of a dozen fishing boats that had once owned by the notorious New England fishing magnate nicknamed wrecking crews finished scrapping the last of a dozen fishing boats that had once owned by the notorious New England fishing magnate nicknamed “The Codfather.” Carlos Rafael, who started out as a fish gutter in New Bedford, Massachusetts, aggressively worked — and sometimes cheated — his way up the ladder, eventually coming to dominate New England’s groundfish fishery (which includes cod, hake, flounder and other white fish) before a 2017 court decision sent him to prison for nearly four years and forced him to sell off his fleet. The sale, completed during his prison sentence, would earn him another $100 million. It was a profitable end for a fishing empire built on seafood fraud, tax evasion and consolidation. So when the private equity-backed Blue Harvest Fisheries announced in 2020 that it was buying most of Rafael’s fleet and putting the boats back to work, some welcomed it as good news for the port of New Bedford, the hub of Cape Cod’s fishing industry. more, >>click to read<< 17:07
Will bankruptcy auction break up New Bedford’s fishing fleet?
Blue Harvest Fisheries’ last assets could be sold at a bankruptcy auction as early as Wednesday, court filings show. Mayor Jon Mitchell and the New Bedford Port Authority have urged the bankruptcy trustee to ensure both the boats and permits remain in New Bedford, the nation’s top-earning commercial fishing port. Some fisherman and advocacy groups say regulators should seize the moment to break up the permits and enact stricter antitrust rules to limit future consolidation of the fishing business. The assets up for auction include eight commercial fishing vessels and 48 state and federal fishing permits, representing about 13% of all quota in the New England groundfish industry. Blue Harvest is the region’s single-largest groundfish permit holder. >>click to read<< 20:42
Blue Harvest bankruptcy leaves millions in unpaid debt to local businesses
For Blue Harvest and Bregal Partners — which is part of a fund with over $18 billion under management — the $50,000 or so owed to Bendiksen is a small fraction of the debts the company had racked up during its eight-year roll up of the New Bedford fishing industry. But for Bendiksen, he said the notice that he will not be paid spells a serious financial blow. And he’s not alone. More than 1,000 independent contractors and companies will be left holding the bag as the private-equity backed fishing venture goes belly up, according to a list of creditors published in the bankruptcy filings. It includes many fishermen who had worked for Blue Harvest and countless small businesses on the New Bedford waterfront: welders, mechanics, supply stores and shipyards. >>click to read<< 11:20
How foreign private equity hooked New England’s fishing industry
The 85-foot trawler, deep green and speckled with rust, was returning from a grueling fishing trip deep into the Atlantic swells. As sunrise broke over New Bedford harbor, the fish were offloaded in plastic crates onto the asphalt dock of Blue Harvest Fisheries, one of the largest fishing companies on the East Coast. About 390 million pounds of seafood move each year through New Bedford’s waterfront, the top-earning commercial fishing port in the nation. Leeman and his crew are barely sharing in the bounty. On deck, Leeman held a one-page “settlement sheet,” the fishing industry’s version of a pay stub. Blue Harvest charges Leeman and his crew for fuel, gear, leasing of fishing rights, and maintenance on the company-owned vessel. Across six trips in the past 14 months, Leeman netted about 14 cents a pound, and the crew, about 7 cents each — a small fraction of the $2.28 per pound that a species like haddock typically fetches at auction. Photos, >click to read< 12:04
Senators Demand Federal Scrutiny of Private Equity’s Incursion Into Fishing
Three U.S. senators, including two members of a Senate subcommittee that oversees the fishing industry, are calling for greater federal scrutiny of private equity’s incursion into East Coast commercial fishing. The ProPublica/New Bedford Light investigation found that a federal regulatory system known as “catch shares,” which was adopted in 2010 to reduce overfishing, has fostered private equity’s consolidation of the industry at the expense of independent fishermen. The single largest permit holder in the New England groundfish industry is Blue Harvest Fisheries, which has rights to catch 12% of groundfish, approaching the antitrust cap of 15.5%. The current antitrust cap “fails to prevent excessive consolidation in the fishery,” said Geoff Smith, one of 18 members of the New England Fishery Management Council, which advises NOAA. >click to read< 10:23
Investigation reveals private equity firms dominate the New Bedford fishing industry
A debate is raging in the local scallop industry about whether fishermen should be allowed to lease their permits. Supporters say the proposal could help fishermen with a small catch share, or those who can’t get out to sea, stay in the business, because they could lease their permit to another captain. Opponents worry it would allow big companies to consolidate the industry and push small fishermen out, similar to what has happened in the groundfishing industry. CAI’s Kathryn Eident talked with Will Sennott, a reporter with the New Bedford Light, about his investigation into permit leasing in the groundfishing industry, and how he found that some of the biggest winners are multinational private equity firms, not small fishermen. >click to read< 16:21
Phil Paleologos: The Canastra Brothers withdraw their offer
With no explanation offered, the respected Canastra brothers will not move forward with a transaction to acquire 15 vessels. Adios to Carlos Rafael’s groundfish and scallop vessels. Once upon a time, the “Codfather” benefited from close to 40 vessels that generated about $100 million per year in sales. We can say arrivederci to 15 more Rafael vessels as it was announced that Richard and Raymond Canastra, owners of BASE Seafood Auction in New Bedford, have officially taken their offer to purchase the vessels off the table. >click to read< 16:53
Fleet of 5 Maine scallop and fishing trawlers sold to New York-based equity firm
A New York-based private equity firm will purchase a Portland scallop and groundfish supply company that manages five of the largest fishing vessels operating in Maine. Blue Harvest Fisheries, a U.S. scallop and whitefish supplier owned by equity firm Bregal Partners, will purchase Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, Undercurrent News reported. Bregal Partners is a private investment firm with $600 million of committed capital funded by a six-generation German-Dutch family. Its board of directors includes the CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, and the chief investment and strategy officer of the Central Bering Sea Fisherman’s Association, who is also on the board of American Seafoods. Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, owned by James Odlin, operates from the Portland Fish Pier and includes the fishing vessels Nobska, Morue, Harmony, Teresa Marie III and Teresa Marie IV. >click to read>16:57
Jeff Davis: Peabody deal is ‘platform’ for more scallop vessel buy-outs
The deal by Bregal Partners and other investors for US scallop fishing firm Peabody will be a platform for more vessel acquisitions in the sector, said Jeff Davis, who will be CEO of the new company. On April 23, former American Seafoods International and Baader North America CEO Davis confirmed the buyout of Peabody and its eight scallop vessels, which is being renamed Blue Harvest Fisheries. Read the rest here 17:02
Jeff Davis confirms deal for scallop fishing firm Peabody Fisheries
Jeff Davis and private equity Bregal Partners have inked a deal for US scallop fishing firm Peabody. Davis confirmed the deal closed on Thursday. On Feb. 12, Undercurrent reported the deal was in the works. He will become CEO of the new company, which will be named Blue Harvest Fisheries. Peabody, based in Newport News, Virginia, has a fleet of eight scallop vessels. Sources told Undercurrent the purchase price was in the region of $40 million. Davis declined to comment on this. Read the rest here 21:20
