After a close vote rejected an offer by Emergent Holdings to buy a majority share of Kuterra, a land-based salmon farm in the Broughton Archipelago region of the North Island, the ‘Namgis First Nation, who own the business, are now looking at taking the necessary next steps to ensure the company’s future.
“Members of the ‘Namgis First Nation have voted by a narrow margin to reject an offer by Emergent Holdings to buy a majority share of Kuterra LP and to grant a 75-year lease of reserve land,” said Eric Hobson of Kuterra LP via press release. “Kuterra respects the decision by the membership and will seek to clarify which aspects of the proposed offer caused the greatest concern. Kuterra will continue to grow out the fish that are currently in the facility under an existing management agreement with Emergent until the next steps have been finalized.”
Don Svanvik, elected chief of the ‘Namgis, stated via press release his people are “disappointed by the rejection of the current offer by Emergent Holdings and await the outcome of next steps. At the same time, the Nation considers Kuterra to have successfully fulfilled the mission the Nation gave it when the company was established in 2012.”
Svanvik added the company “has proven the viability of land-based Atlantic salmon farming, and that it has catalyzed change in the industry. The Nation is encouraged by the number of new land-based farms now in operation or under construction that have learned from Kuterra’s pioneering efforts, and is confident that this new generation of land-based Atlantic salmon farms will transform Atlantic salmon aquaculture.”
According to year-end financial documents that are posted online, Kuterra Limited Partnership had assets of $1,039,332 and liabilities of $3,029,022 as at March 31, 2018, and revenues of $2,231,462 and a net loss of $345,476 for the year then ended.
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