A consortium led by SOKOTRA Capital Ltd., a Dubai-based private investment company specializing in the agriculture and aquaculture sectors, has completed the acquisition of 100 percent of L’Aquaculture Tunisienne (AT), one of the oldest and most established companies in the aquaculture sector in North Africa and the Mediterranean basin.
Founded in 1988 by Si M’hamed Driss, AT is the largest seabass and seabream hatchery and nursery in North Africa, with an annual production capacity of 20 million fingerlings and 1,500 tons of fish per year, mainly seabass and seabream. AT has successfully served the local and export markets for seabass and seabream over the past 30 years and has an established reputation for delivering high-quality fingerlings, backed by a skilled and dedicated management and operational team.
With this acquisition, SOKOTRA Capital is reiterating its investment strategy focused on the highly promising agriculture and aquaculture sectors through the building of a portfolio of investments in these sectors, both in Africa and in Southeast Asia.
Albert Momdjian, founder and CEO of SOKOTRA Capital said: “We are extremely pleased with this acquisition. AT has a highly skilled team with extensive experience. Tunisia remains, and despite the recent challenges, a very attractive and friendly destination for foreign direct investments. We sincerely hope that this will be the start of a significant expansion for us, and for other investment firms, in Tunisia. We have very ambitious plans for AT and we hope to better service the local market in terms of fingerlings, but also to better position AT as a highly reliable producer of quality fingerlings to the rest of North Africa as well as, in due course, to the Mediterranean basin.”
“The agriculture and aquaculture sectors are of great importance to SOKOTRA Capital Ltd. It is all about efficiency and about feeding the growing population. The protein race has already started and we are very well positioned as a firm and as a team to benefit from it,” he said.
Karim Garnaoui, CEO of AT said: “Today, and backed by the new investors, AT has the capacity to become one of the leading Mediterranean basin aquaculture companies. The in-depth knowledge of the industry, supported by the strong financial and strategic capabilities of the new investors, can only propel AT to become one of the best companies in the sector. This transaction has been successfully completed thanks to the professionalism, support and commitment of the SOKOTRA Capital team who have demonstrated on numerous occasions their technical and operational expertise in restructuring the company.”
“We are very pleased to pass the helm of AT to the SOKOTRA Capital led consortium and we do strongly believe in their capabilities to complete and further develop the vision of Si M’hamed Driss,” said Meriem Driss, one of the selling shareholders representatives.
