Pelagic fish going Dutch?

[Jaffa]

The Altaire makes the news again

 

16 December 2005

Shares buyout could see pelagic giant going Dutch

 

CONTROL of Shetland's biggest fishing ship may be about to pass to a foreign-owned company.

 

According to reports which have sent shockwaves through the industry, four of the seven local shareholders in the Northmavine-based Altaire are selling out to UK-based Dutch interests.

 

The deal would give the newcomers a 57 per cent stake in the company and its boat, raising questions about the continued involvement of the remaining Shetland owners and her crews.

 

The £14 million Altaire is the third largest fishing vessel in the UK fleet and owns fishing licences and other entitlements valued at over £3m. She also holds the second-largest allocation of herring and mackerel quota in the Shetland fleet after the Whalsay boat Research.

 

According to informed speculation, the buyer is Interfish, based in Plymouth, where it runs a fish factory and employs up to 240 people. It has various satellite companies in the UK which operate a fleet of seven trawlers including several pelagic freezer trawlers.

 

The Dutch now control the vast bulk of EU pelagic quotas which they catch and freeze in large factory ships. Interfish is part of the powerful Pelagic Freezer-trawler Association in Holland which manages 28 large factory ships, including the two biggest vessels on the UK fishing register.

 

The fleet fishes around Europe, including Shetland, and off West Africa.

 

The Shetland pelagic fleet has had dealings with Interfish in the past to lease quota from its large holding, some of which it bought up from the Scottish pelagic fleet. Interfish also imports large quantities of fish from Scotland to process.

 

The players on all sides of the Altaire deal were keeping their cards very close to their chests this week, making it impossible to confirm the details.

 

It is a particularly sensitive issue for several reasons including the acrimonious split among the Altaire's owners years ago which has never been resolved. The main skipper John Peter Duncan, and his allies have previously tried and failed to buy out the other four, who do not work on the ship.

 

Mr Duncan was away from Shetland this week. He and two other original co-owners are not part of the shares deal. One, Jerry Ramsay, said on Tuesday they would be saying nothing about the matter.

 

One of those said to be selling his share is former chief engineer and second skipper Alastair Inkster. He said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement and could say nothing. He did reveal that the deal was at a critical stage and said there would be nothing to say until the new year.

 

Crewmen on the boat are self-employed and may face upheaval. Those contacted by this newspaper would not talk either.

 

Calls to Interfish in Plymouth were not returned by management.

 

Despite the lack of confirmation from those involved, the story continues to be the prime topic of conversation among fishermen and industry observers.

 

The issue of future ownership is an increasingly pressing one for the Shetland pelagic fleet as the owners get older and look to the next generation. The sums of money involved in buying into one of the eight boats would be huge and it remains to be seen whether shareholdings will pass down to the sons and daughters of current owners.

 

The big unspoken fear is that licences and quota are sold out of Shetland and possibly lost to the economy forever, as has happened with pelagic fishing in other areas of Europe.

 

Company records show that the Altaire fishing company declared a profit after tax of £1.93m for the year ending June 2004. Outstanding loans and overdrafts at the Clydesdale Bank stood at just over £7m.

 

The figures reflect the position before the recent high-profile court case involving illegal mackerel landings in Denmark.

© The Shetland Times Ltd.

[JB]

And so it starts.

JB