Sealaska sells European seafood business to Japan's Sojitz, says sale will help expand shareholder programs

Sealaska Corporation has sold its European seafood business to Japan's Sojitz Corporation, the Juneau-based Alaska Native corporation announced Oct. 1. Neither company disclosed the price.

Sealaska's subsidiary Woocheen sold Sealaska Foods International Holdings Limited, a London holding company whose businesses include UK-based New England Seafood International and companies in Norway and Iceland. Sojitz said Oct. 2 that it now fully owns the holding company and plans to rename it Sojitz Seafood International Holdings. New England Seafood, which Sealaska bought in 2020, processes and sells seafood for the European market, focused on the United Kingdom.

Sealaska called the sale the first step in a strategy that it said will let it "expand shareholder programs that directly impact its communities closer to home." It did not say which programs or how much money would go to them.

Sealaska is the regional Native corporation for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska, formed under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and owned by its shareholders. It said it will share updates with shareholders as more information becomes available.