report

Undercurrent News is proud to present its third annual report on seafood mergers and acquisitions (M&A), highlighting both the increased presence of financial consolidators in the industry, as well as the impact COVID-19 is likely to have on dealmakers in the year ahead.

Our latest report, “Seafood’s Top Dealmakers 2020: COVID-19 looms over M&A after 2019 spend passes $5bn”, uses information provided from many of Undercurrent’s network of sources in the industry to assess what 2020 has in store for seafood M&A, as well as looking at some of the largest deals understood to currently be in the pipeline.

As before, this year’s report will be split into five separate sections. The first provides an introduction to the year, detailing the largest deals understood to be in progress, as well as insight from specialist M&A advisors on what the coronavirus pandemic will mean for the sector’s largest dealmakers.

The introduction will also break down the data from the 188 deals recorded by Undercurrent to have taken place in the global seafood sector over the last 15 months, analyzing key trends and charting the largest completed transactions in that time.

The second section covers the top 10 most active and involved M&A advisors in the industry during 2019, detailing their activity over the period. Where possible, Undercurrent has interviewed key advisors to hear their insight on wider trends within the global seafood sector that transcend the current pandemic situation.

Within the third section, we’ve provided profiles of the 20 largest and busiest industrial consolidators within the sector. Some of these, such as Canada’s Cooke family and tuna giant Thai Union Group, are staples of the annual report, regularly acquiring multiple smaller companies every year.

Others are new faces, such as the Pacific cod consolidator Bristol Bay Native Corporation and Faroese salmon farmer Bakkafrost, who are relative newcomers to the seafood M&A space, entering Undercurrent’s report on the back of multi-million dollar deals completed last year.

The fourth section then details 23 of the most notable financial consolidators and conglomerates in the industry, profiling the wide variety of investment funds, private equities and holding firms that are taking an ever-greater presence in the sector.

These range huge, billion-dollar funds such as Platinum Equity and the UAE’s Mubadala Investment Company; to more niche and specialized private equities such as sushi-focused Mayfair Equity Partners and alternative protein backer Agronomics.

In the fifth and final section, this year’s report is rounded off with a full deal timeline from Jan.1 2019 until March 31, 2020, providing brief details of every deal or sales process recorded to have either completed or been set in motion during this timespan.

Buyers of the report also get a spreadsheet of every deal from Jan. 1, 2015 to the end of the first quarter in 2020. The spreadsheet includes, when possible, the deal value and any advisors who worked on the buy or the sell-side. 

Seafood’s Top Dealmakers 2020 features:

• A 20-page introduction offering the COVID-19 outlook for M&A and outlining key trends from 2019
• Exclusive charts and data showing the busiest consolidators and advisors in the seafood sector since 2015, as well as the 10 most valuable deals from each of the past five years
• Profiles of the 10 most active advisory firms in seafood M&A, with exclusive interviews offering insight on dealmaking in every major seafood species and region
• Profiles, contact details and acquisition history for the 20 most active industry consolidators of 2019
• Profiles and contact details of the 23 most acquisitive financial consolidators and conglomerates in seafood worldwide over the past 15 months
• A full timeline of every deal or transaction taking place within the global seafood sector since January 2019
• Spreadsheet of every deal from Jan. 1, 2015 to end of Q1 2020 

Discounts are available for our corporate subscribers. Contact us for more details