INVL Private Equity Fund II is moving to consolidate Lithuania’s fish-processing sector with an agreement to acquire Nordian Group and Norvelita, two businesses whose combined annual revenue is expected to reach roughly €200 million. The transaction would create one of the region’s larger fish-processing groups and give the private equity fund a platform for expanding exports, production capacity and higher-value seafood products across Europe.
Private equity investors have increasingly looked beyond software and technology for consolidation opportunities in fragmented European industries. INVL Private Equity Fund II is now applying that strategy to seafood, agreeing to acquire two Lithuanian fish-processing businesses with complementary positions in the supply chain.
The €410 million fund has signed agreements to acquire Nordian Group and Norvelita, subject to approval from Lithuania’s Competition Council. The transaction is expected to close in the coming months.
If completed, the combination would bring together a major salmon-processing and export operation with a fresh-fish supply and wholesale business. INVL expects the combined companies to generate approximately €200 million in annual revenue.
The investment thesis is based partly on scale.
Norvelita has spent three decades building relationships with Western European retail chains. The company specializes in smoked and salted salmon and exports about 85% of its production to Western European markets.
It operates a fish-processing complex covering approximately 25,000 square meters and processes around 18,000 tonnes of fish products annually. Consolidated revenue reached €152.7 million in 2025, with approximately 650 employees.
Nordian Group operates further upstream in the fresh-fish supply chain. The group supplies major Lithuanian retail chains and has been developing opportunities to enter additional product categories.
Its consolidated revenue reached €46.3 million in 2025, while its companies employ approximately 176 people.
The numbers illustrate why INVL sees a combination rather than two standalone investments as the larger opportunity.
Joint procurement could provide greater purchasing scale, while the companies could potentially share logistics, production capabilities, customer relationships and market knowledge. The fund also sees room to develop higher-value-added seafood products for European consumers.
“This transaction” aims to create an internationally competitive fish-processing group, INVL Private Equity Fund II Partner Nerijus Drobavičius said, pointing to potential synergies in raw-material procurement and new product development.
The strategy reflects a broader private-equity playbook: acquire established businesses with strong market positions, combine complementary capabilities and invest in capacity and expansion.
But the seafood industry has characteristics that make execution particularly important.
Fish processors operate within global supply chains affected by raw-material availability, commodity prices, transportation costs, energy prices, food-safety requirements and consumer demand. For exporters, currency movements and changing trade conditions can also affect margins.
Scale can help mitigate some of those pressures. Larger purchasing volumes can improve negotiating leverage, while a broader product portfolio can reduce dependence on any single species, customer segment or market.
Norvelita’s Western European customer base gives the proposed group an established export platform. Nordian, meanwhile, brings a stronger fresh-fish distribution presence in Lithuania.
That combination could allow the group to move beyond traditional processing into more differentiated seafood products.
For private-equity investors, the emphasis on value-added products is significant. Commodity-style processing can be heavily exposed to input costs and competitive pricing. Branded, prepared or otherwise differentiated products can potentially command better margins, although they also require investment in production, marketing, food technology and distribution.
The founders of both companies will remain minority shareholders after the transaction and continue working with the combined business.
That structure is designed to preserve management knowledge while giving the new shareholder access to capital for expansion.
For Norvelita founder and principal shareholder Jordanas Kenstavičius, the transaction is intended to support further investment in production capacity and employees while maintaining the company’s quality standards and customer relationships.
Nordian Group founder and principal shareholder Ramūnas Gaižauskas similarly described the deal as a next phase for a business that has built a major fresh-fish supply operation in the Baltic states.
The transaction also expands INVL Private Equity Fund II’s investment activity.
The fund has already invested in Eesti Keskkonnateenused, Estonia’s largest waste-management group, and in POLMED, a leading Polish private healthcare-services group, alongside consortium partners.
INVL and technology group Tesonet have also announced the planned acquisition of Lithuania’s Šiaurės licėjus private school and kindergarten network.
The fish-processing deal therefore fits into a portfolio strategy extending across essential-services businesses rather than concentrating on a single industry.
The fund says it is currently in an active investment phase and aims to invest in 10 to 12 businesses with high growth potential.
The proposed Nordian-Norvelita combination could become one of its more visible consolidation plays.
For the Lithuanian seafood industry, the deal could accelerate a trend toward larger, more integrated processors capable of competing for European retail contracts. For customers, the promised expansion into new product categories could broaden the range of seafood products available through existing retail channels.
The immediate issue, however, remains regulatory approval.
The Competition Council will need to assess whether combining two significant players could affect competition in relevant fish-processing or distribution markets. The outcome and any conditions attached to approval will shape the final structure of the transaction.
If approved, the challenge will shift from consolidation to execution: integrating two businesses, preserving customer relationships, expanding production and developing higher-margin products without eroding the operational strengths that made the companies attractive acquisitions in the first place.
Market Landscape
The proposed transaction reflects a broader European private-equity trend toward buy-and-build strategies in fragmented industrial and consumer sectors.
Food processing can be attractive to investors because established businesses often have recurring relationships with retailers and distributors, while consolidation can create purchasing and operational efficiencies.
Seafood adds another layer of complexity. The sector is exposed to global supply conditions, raw-material pricing, cold-chain logistics, sustainability requirements and changing consumer preferences.
Lithuania’s geographic position provides processors with access to Baltic and broader European markets, while established export relationships can provide a platform for regional expansion.
The Nordian-Norvelita combination would bring together two different business models: a large-scale processed-salmon operation and a fresh-fish supply business. The resulting portfolio could give the group greater control across multiple stages of the seafood value chain.
For INVL, the investment also provides an example of how private equity can use capital and consolidation to transform established regional businesses into larger European competitors.
The critical metrics after closing will be revenue growth, export expansion, production utilization, procurement savings, product mix and profitability.
Top Insights
- INVL Private Equity Fund II plans to combine Norvelita and Nordian Group into a roughly €200 million-revenue fish-processing platform targeting European growth.
- Norvelita brings Western European retail relationships, salmon-processing capacity and €152.7 million of 2025 revenue to the proposed combination.
- Nordian Group contributes fresh-fish distribution expertise, Lithuanian retail relationships and an expansion platform across new seafood categories.
- Joint procurement, production investment and higher-value seafood products are central to INVL’s strategy for creating additional scale and margins.
- Competition Council approval remains the key near-term milestone before the founders transition into minority shareholder roles within the combined group.
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