The long-awaited restructuring plan for AVRAMAR Greece ultimately did not reach the Athens Court of First Instance by the end of November as scheduled, introducing a new delay in a process that was already well advanced and expected to culminate with the formal submission of the agreement reached between the creditors and the preferred investor, Aqua Bridge Group.
Sources within the Greek financial sector confirm that the main reason for the delay is technical and procedural in nature, as the documentation prepared for the court included financial data updated only up to August 2025, whereas Greek law requires restructuring plans to be based on accounting information no more than three months old at the time of submission.
Because the file was not submitted before the end of November, it became mandatory to include the financial results for September as well, which in turn requires the entire dossier to be revised and updated. The need to rebuild the submission has forced a postponement, adding further delay to the uncertainty already surrounding the company’s future ownership.
According to the Greek financial press, this technical issue is compounded by a more politically and financially significant factor: the creditors are now seriously considering withdrawing from the agreement signed with Aqua Bridge, due to the increasing appeal of the new offer presented by Cooke Aquaculture.
This strategic reconsideration has prompted the creditors to “buy time” before formalising in court an agreement that might be subject to change.
It is worth noting that the Canadian company Cooke Aquaculture has entered the process with a significantly improved proposal compared with its previous offer, and one that is highly competitive when set against the package put forward by Aqua Bridge.
According to banking sources, Cooke submitted a new bid in the middle of last week which includes paying €118 million in cash before the end of the year to acquire AVRAMAR Greece’s debt, the assumption of up to €10 million in existing factoring liabilities, and a total recovery for creditors close to €140 million – a figure that far exceeds its initial proposal.
In addition, Cooke has put forward a €60 million investment plan aimed at modernising and repositioning AVRAMAR Greece’s operations. The company has also committed to honouring the obligations arising from loans granted by the Hellenic Development Bank – around €30 million – which cannot be subjected to write-downs or restructuring.
By comparison, Aqua Bridge’s offer would enable banks to recover around €150 million, albeit over a seven-year period, and would entail a 70% write-off of AVRAMAR Greece’s debt along with €40 million in investment over the next three years.
The creditors are now seeking a legal mechanism that would allow them to break the preliminary agreement with Aqua Bridge “without consequences”, although such a move is considered extremely complex due to the commitments already signed and the risk of claims for “loos of profits”.
Meanwhile, the future of AVRAMAR Greece remains in limbo, awaiting either the confirmation of the initial restructuring plan or the possibility that Cooke’s unexpected intervention may ultimately reshape the course of the Mediterranean’s largest producer of gilthead seabream and European seabass.
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