Inside Alaska Business
Silver Bay Seafoods
Peter Pan Seafood Co. processing plants in Dillingham and Port Moller are coming under the control of Silver Bay Seafoods. Although former Peter Pan co-owner Rodger May outbid Silver Bay at a receivership auction in September, May agreed in November to sell the facilities to Silver Bay, which operated them last season after Peter Pan’s financial collapse. Silver Bay previously bought Peter Pan’s Valdez plant and acquired Trident Seafoods’ plants in Ketchikan and False Pass.
Hilcorp
Hilcorp acquired two near-offshore units developed by Italian energy company Eni SpA. The companies completed the $1 billion deal for Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq on November 4. The company says a polymer flooding technology that has enhanced oil recovery at the neighboring Milne Point unit could be applied to Eni’s two mature fields.
Furie Operating Alaska
With a natural gas shortage looming in Southcentral three winters from now, Furie Operating Alaska committed with Enstar Natural Gas Company to increase Cook Inlet output. A five-year contract is set to begin in 2026, starting at 3 billion cubic feet annually and peaking at 9.5 billion cubic feet, or about one quarter of Enstar’s annual gas demand. Furie’s Chief Commercial Officer Mark Slaughter says additional drilling in the Kitchen Lights Unit would be needed, so the company requested a reduction in state royalties, from 12.5 percent to 3 percent.
Chugach Alaska
A subsidiary of Chugach Alaska, the Native corporation for the Prince William Sound region, acquired two mechanical contractors. Chugach Commercial Holdings adds HVAC, LLC and Alaska Integrated Services (AIS) to its portfolio. Founded in Fairbanks in 1995, HVAC performs sheet metal fabrication and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning services. AIS, with offices in Fairbanks and Anchorage, was founded more than twenty years ago. It offers comprehensive HVAC, lighting, security, and automation controls.
Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation
The village corporation for Utqiaġvik acquired a majority interest in Delta Solutions and Strategies, a Colorado-based defense and space services contractor. Delta joins Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) as part of the Bowhead Family of Companies within the UIC Government Services division. The acquisition is UIC’s largest to date.
Aleut
A subsidiary of the Alaska Native corporation for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands region launched its own real estate brokerage. Headquartered in Anchorage, Tayal Brokerage is led by broker-in-charge Mike Jenks, a shareholder of Aleut and The Atxam Corporation, the village corporation for Atka Island. Jenks also serves as general manager of Aleut Real Estate (ARE), the regional corporation’s property investment and management arm. Under ARE, Tayal Brokerage offers consulting and investment strategy, serving clients across Alaska with a particular focus on the Anchorage area and Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The name “Tayal” means “to buy” in Unangam Tunuu.
RMG Real Estate
Retooling under a model called “full agent support,” RMG Real Estate Network shifted away from the Keller Williams brand and started its own brokerage. Founder Reed Moore says his team of almost forty agents, moving almost 500 units per year, is big enough that he was practically already providing brokerage services such as listing and transaction management, marketing, and bookkeeping. To promote good professional habits, RMG is setting up a flexible commission structure while offering coaching and consistent training.
Northrim
Northrim BanCorp, parent of Anchorage-based Northrim Bank, purchased a Texas firm that provides factoring, asset based lending, and alternative working capital solutions to small and medium sized enterprises. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Sallyport Commercial Finance complements Northrim Funding Services, a factoring division of Northrim Bank. Northrim expects the $53.9 million cash purchase to yield earnings accretion of approximately 15 percent to 2025 operating results.
Heather’s Choice
Two factors led Heather Kelly to make the difficult decision to relocate her Heather’s Choice food company out of Anchorage. As she explained in a follow-up appearance on the TV show Shark Tank in December, making and selling dehydrated snacks and meals is logistically harder in Alaska, especially as sales have grown. Secondly, she visited Oregon two years ago and fell in love with the place. Several company staff agreed to relocate as well.
GCI
Cable TV is going away for GCI subscribers by the middle of 2025. The telecom company notified customers in November that its television service will sunset, given the migration toward internet streaming. The company has been in the TV business since 1996 when it leveraged its position as a homegrown long-distance telephone company to buy out Alaska Cablevision, Alaskan Cable Network, and Prime Cable of Alaska for $280.7 million, absorbing their combined 101,000 subscribers.
TA Infrastructure
Before a pipeline can monetize stranded North Slope natural gas, Texas-based TA Infrastructure is advancing a wilder approach using cryptocurrency. The company applied for a state permit to install a data center (the size of a shipping container) at Hilcorp’s Endicott field. The pilot project would turn gas into electricity, electricity into computing cycles, and computing cycles into Bitcoin, which can be traded for real money. Plus, the chilly Arctic Ocean site minimizes power lost to cooling the computer hardware.