INVL backs €200m fish processing merger in the Baltics

INVL Private Equity Fund II has signed agreements to acquire Lithuanian fish processors Nordian Group and Norvelita, combining them into one of the largest players in the region.

The €410m ($474m) fund, managed by Baltic alternative asset manager INVL Asset Management, expects to close the deal in the coming months, subject to approval from Lithuania’s Competition Council.

The merged group would generate combined annual revenues of around €200m ($231m). The fund’s plan is to turn the two businesses into a regional champion capable of competing with Europe’s larger processors, with value creation drawn from operational overlap rather than scale alone.

“With this transaction, we aim to create a strong, internationally competitive fish processing group where Norvelita’s experience and stable export business will complement Nordian Group’s growth ambitions,” said Nerijus Drobavičius, a Partner at INVL Private Equity Fund II. He added that the deal sits “in a sector where demand for quality products keeps growing, and it puts us in a position to give the end consumer a clearly better choice.”

Norvelita, one of Lithuania’s largest fish processors, specialises in smoked and salted salmon and exports roughly 85% of its output to Western Europe from a 25,000 square-metre complex that handles some 18,000 tonnes a year. It posted 2025 consolidated revenues of €152.7m ($177m) and employs around 650 people. Nordian Group, a fish processing and wholesale operation that supplies fresh fish to major Lithuanian retail chains, reported €46.3m ($54m) in 2025 revenues and employs roughly 176. In a structure typical of founder-led buyouts in the region, both founders will retain minority stakes and stay on to help build the combined group.

INVL Private Equity Fund II has already backed Estonia’s largest waste management group, Eesti Keskkonnateenused, and, alongside consortium partners, Poland’s private healthcare provider POLMED. It recently announced a planned acquisition of the private school and kindergarten network Šiaurės licėjus with technology group Tesonet.

The sector-agnostic fund writes equity tickets of €10m to €60m ($12m to $69m), targets majority or significant minority stakes, and is seeking to back 10 to 12 high-growth businesses across the Baltics, Poland, and the wider EU. INVL Asset Management, part of the Invalda INVL Group, oversees or supervises around €2.1bn ($2.4bn) in assets.