October 17, 2007

Australia's Clean Seas buys growout business

Australia's Clean Seas Tuna Ltd is to buy the Stehr family's private aquaculture business, Clean Seas Aquaculture Growout (CSAG) Pty Ltd.

Hagen Stehr is the chairman of Clean Seas Tuna.

The acquisition will complete the full business integration by Clean Seas exercising its option to purchase CSAG, as originally outlined in the IPO prospectus.

Clean Seas owns the hatcheries and onshore facilities at Arno Bay, Port Augusta and Fitzgerald Bay which produce kingfish, mulloway and soon, southern bluefin tuna fingerlings.

The proposed acquisition is subject to Clean Seas shareholders approving the transaction at the annual general meeting on November 20.

Clean Seas Tuna saw a five-fold jump in profits last year, with first half profit for 2007/08 reaching AUS$486,000.

The company was the first in Australia to produce yellowtail kingfish on a commercial scale. The company in October last year experimented with spawning tuna in captivity. The company was experimented successfully with spawning kingfish in April last year before moving on to tuna.