Overseas investment decision for case 201710125 - Maruha (N.Z.) Corporation Limited

Consent is declined under the Fisheries Act 1996 to Maruha (NZ) Corporation Limited for an overseas investment in up to 15,000 tonnes of annual catch entitlement (ACE) annually for 10 years from the date of consent comprising:

• 2,500 tonnes of JMA3 Jack Mackerel
• 4,000 tonnes of SBW6I Southern Blue Whiting
• 4,000 tonnes of SQU1T and/or SQU6T Squid
• 2,500 tonnes of BAR1 and/or BAR7 Barracouta of which no more than 1.500 may be BAR1
• 2,000 tonnes of other target and by-catch species

The Applicant is a New Zealand incorporated company, whose main business is operating the Aleksey Slobodchikov, a chartered 104.5m ‘Big Autonomous Trawler-Freezer’ (BATM) class vessel, which it uses to harvest ‘low value’ trawl-caught species such as jack mackerel, blue mackerel, barracouta, southern blue whiting, squid and hoki primarily for export.

Maruha is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Corporation, a widely-held Tokyo Stock Exchange listed company. The Applicant has previously been granted consent to acquire ACE and to acquire an interest in the quota of its wholly owned subsidiary Ceebay Holdings Ltd, through which Maruha owns Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) and trades in Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE). In 2017, the Applicant purchased the Te Raukura, another BATM fishing vessel, for which additional ACE species was requested.

For consent to be granted, Ministers needed to be satisfied that the granting of consent was in the national interest, having regard to the relevant factors set out in section 57H(2) of the Fisheries Act 1996. Both Minister Clark and Minister Nash were not satisfied that the granting of consent was in the national interest.