No comment on FPI sale details: Rideout

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has received details on how the province's flagship fish processing company wants to sell its assets, but is not commenting on it.

St. John's-based Fishery Products International has solicited bids for its various assets, including plants, ships and quotas.

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout said the government is requesting additional information regarding the potential sale.

"Government will now engage in a data collection and evaluation process," Rideout said in a statement.

"Government will continue to review the information provided by FPI Ltd. in the coming days but expects that more information will be available to the public in the near future."

FPI's leadership has received at least four bids for different combinations of its assets.

Corner Brook-based Barry Group and St. John's-based Ocean Choice were interested in different combinations of FPI's harvesting and processing assets. A team led by current FPI managers also submitted a similar bid.

Nova Scotia processor High Liner Foods has bid for FPI's U.S.-based marketing division, which operates a value-added processing plant in Burin.

FPI's leadership, which includes key shareholder John Risley, revived its appeals in January to find buyers for its various assets.

Risley, the principal in Nova Scotia processor Clearwater Foods, led a hostile takeover of FPI in 2001. He said the subsequent years proved to be disappointing.

FPI has had turbulent years lately. An attempt to launch an income trust failed, and the company has had strained relations with its unionized employees. The company said it cannot afford to continue operating without wage concessions.

Many of its Newfoundland-based operations, particularly in southern Newfoundland, have been idled for more than a year.

FPI says a variety of factors from cheap processing labour in China to unfavourable currency exchange have made its traditional fish processing lines unprofitable.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government says the FPI Act provincial legislation that controls governance of the former provincial Crown corporation gives it the right to approve or reject FPI's decision.

"Government will only consider a course of action that assures protection of the public interest," Rideout said.

In late January, Premier Danny Williams who said he believed "a golden opportunity" existed to reform FPI said he would prefer to see most of FPI's Newfoundland-based assets kept together.