Canada-based Cooke Inc. has reportedly acquired Avramar Seafood, the Spain-based parent company of Greece-based seafood firm Avramar Greece, in an apparent bid to intensify its push to purchase the struggling aquaculture company.
Avramar Seafood, which mainly operates in Spain, was separated from Avramar Greece in 2024 as a means of protecting the Spanish company from the financial issues the Greece-based operations faced. Paiania, Greece-based Avramar’s financial issues had become problematic enough in 2023 for the company’s lenders to hire Deloitte to oversee a potential sale of the company, which began to gain momentum in 2024 as a list of bidders developed.
At the time, media reports claimed as many as six bidders for the company had been selected to submit competitive binding offers. That sale process is still in the works, and now over a year later two main competitors are vying to purchase Avramar Greece – Aqua Bridge Group and Cooke.
United Arab Emirates-based investment firm Aqua Bridge Group has made inroads into the aquaculture space and has managed to snag development contracts and deals to develop recirculating aquaculture system facilities in the Middle East. Publications in Greece, including Kathimerini, have reported the firm has offered as much as EUR 230 million (USD 273 million) for the operations of Avramar Greece.
Aqua Bridge Holding CEO Mohammad Tabish announced in early 2025 that the company had taken “a significant step forward” in formalizing the acquisition of Avramar Greece. Tabish said Aqua Bridge was working with Deloitte and was trying to create a “seamless transition” for the company.
However that deal apparently ran into snags as Cooke’s offer began to appeal to creditors of the company in 2025.
Now, Cooke has reportedly taken a big step toward taking ownership of Avramar Greece by acquiring its parent company. Kathimerini reported Cooke sent a letter to creditors on 10 February that it signed an agreement to acquire all shares of Avramar Seafood, making it an indirect shareholder of Avramar Greece.
That move also means Amerra Capital is no longer an interlocutor of the bank, according to Kathimerini. Amerra Capital, along with Mubadala Investment Group, were behind the merger of Andromeda Seafood, Nireus Aquaculture, and Selonda Aquaculture – which ultimately created Avramar in 2020.
A representative of Cooke said the company would not offer comment on the purchase.
Cooke has already shown interest in getting into Greek aquaculture and Mediterranean aquaculture in general. The company acquired Culmarex after Morpol initiated a sale process in April 2011, giving it a foothold in sea bass and sea bream aquaculture in Europe. The company also attempted to purchase Selonda Farms in 2019, but was headed off by an offer by Diorasis International which ultimately resulted in the creation of Avramar in Greece.
Now, Cooke is reportedly offering EUR 210 million (USD 249 million) to acquire all of Avramar, and solidify its attempts to enter into the sea bream and sea bass aquaculture space in Greece.
