Skeggs selling down fishing assets

Dunedin-based Skeggs Group is selling down most of its wide-ranging South Island fishing assets - including about 20 per cent of the entire Bluff oyster quota - in what will be a multimillion-dollar tender process.

The 53-year-old company is looking beyond traditional fishing assets and intends using the sale proceeds to boost investment in the potentially more lucrative aquaculture sector.

Skeggs has already sold its Kaikoura crayfish quota, Kaikoura fish factory and wet fish quota and now has up for tender its quota for Bluff oysters, Otago crayfish and lower South Island queen scallops, plus two Bluff-based oyster boats Golden Lea and Golden Quest. The tender closes mid-December.