Selonda buyer pledges long-term backing to sea bass farming

The new owner of Anglesey Aquaculture – the North Wales sea bass farm formerly known as Selonda – has stressed its long-term commitment to the company and said land-based fish farming can be commercially successful if supported by the right investment.

Selonda was acquired on 5 January by Tethys Ocean, a division of private-equity firm Linnaeus Capital Partners, having gone into administration the day before. It has since been renamed Anglesey Aquaculture.

Linnaeus said Tethys Ocean already had a strong interest in land-based recirculation fish farming – including Israeli company Grow Fish Anywhere – and its acquisition of Anglesey provided “further evidence of its strong belief that land-based recirculation farms can be commercially successful”.

Linnaeus managing partner Anita Hamilton said it was Tethys Ocean’s vision to “take the Mediterranean aquaculture sector in Europe to the next level” and that land-based aquaculture systems would play an important role in sustainable food production in the future.

“The investment in Wales is an ideal platform for such development and fits strategically with Tethys Ocean,” she said.

Anglesey Aquaculture MD Andre Bravo said the plan was to first stabilise the company under direction from Linnaeus and Tethys before developing its production capacity and eventually moving into “processing and added-value activities”.

Anglesey Aquaculture is the UK’s only producer of farmed sea bass, currently producing 1,000 tonnes a year.