In what state officials called the largest single financial transaction to date for any of Alaska's six community development quota companies, Coastal Villages Region Fund increased its ownership of American Seafoods Group from 35.2 percent to 45.3 percent. The fund, based in Anchorage, made the deal in late February.

The state of Alaska set up the community development quota, or CDQ, program in 1992 to help stabilize the economies of Western Alaska fishing communities. Each CDQ group is incorporated under Alaska law as a nonprofit corporation, and has formed partnerships with other businesses and corporations who participate in the Bering Sea fishery. The royalties received from these partnerships are the source of funds for the fishery-related community development plans.

American Seafoods is a major harvester and processor of a variety of fish species, and the largest harvester in the Bering Sea, with approximately 45 percent of the catcher-processor market share.

Under its Southern Pride Catfish and American Pride brands, the company is also the largest catfish processor in the United States. American Seafoods' finished products are sold worldwide through an extensive global distribution and customer-support network.

The CDQ group, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Coastal Villages Pollock LLC, received approval to invest up to an additional $40 million in the transaction, state officials confirmed March 2. State officials said part of the agreement called for an increase in jobs for the CDQ group's members with American Seafoods.

Details of the initial investment were not disclosed. A spokeswoman for Coastal Villages Region Fund said their key executives were traveling and not available for comment.

The deal stemmed from the acquisition by the CDQ group and the management group of American Seafoods of all equity interests in the company formerly held by Centre Partners, a middle market private equity firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York.

American Seafoods officials said Centre Partners sold its nearly 23 percent equity interest in the company to Coastal Villages and a management group led by Bernt Bodal, the company's chairman and chief executive officer.

The aggregate purchase price for Centre's interest was $81.75 million, the company said. The management group's acquisition was financed by Islandsbanki ISB, and was made through a newly formed limited liability company, ASLP Acquisition. Additional financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bodal said Centre Partners has been an excellent partner, "but as a private equity firm, it was inevitable that they eventually would want to exit in order to realize additional value created for their investors."

Bodal's personal ownership in American Seafoods increased from 24 to 40 percent with the transaction. The rest of the company's stock is held by minority owners.

Bodal said in a statement released by American Seafoods that the deal would ensure that the company continues to have a strong and stable foundation for continued growth and prosperity.

As part of the transaction, the company restructured its board of directors. In addition to Bodal and Morgan Crow, executive director of Coastal Villages, the board now consists of Robert Williams, deputy director of Coastal Villages; Jeff Davis, former chief operating officer of American Seafoods; Scott Perekslis, managing director of Centre Partners Management LLC; Bill Bittner, a partner in the Anchorage law firm of Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot; and Ren Jurgensen, a retired director of the audit firm KPMG.

The deal completes a process that began in 2002 when Centre Partners, which held 45 percent of the company after it joined with Bodal to acquire American Seafoods from Norway Seafoods in 2000, sold down approximately half of its stake to Bodal and Coastal Villages.

Crow said in the same statement released by American Seafoods that the transaction would further the CDQ's ability to provide sustainable community development dollars for its 20 member communities.

In 2005, Coastal Villages employed 787 people who earned more than $3.68 million, according to reports filed with the state. Norton Sound Economic Development Corp., another of the six CDQ groups, paid more than $3.9 million in wages to 521 employees.

Greg Cashen, the state's CDQ manager, noted in comments on the proposed transaction in early February that there were many reasons why the investment of millions of dollars in this transaction would be beneficial to the Coastal Villages region, including opportunities for access to employment, training and other business prospects.

In other news, state officials said changes in progress for CDQ regulations will make business practices, including some financial information about the CDQs, more transparent.

"There will be more oversight and more public scrutiny regarding the business practices of the CDQs," said Jennifer Payne, public information officer for the Alaska Department of Commerce. "The program is meant to help the communities (the CDQs) serve, and, obviously, if you know what's going on, you can help make informed decisions about where the company should go.

"It's not one CDQ being targeted," Payne said. "All of them will have to file these reports and get this information out."

The CDQ groups, established to increase the economic stability of dozens of Alaskan communities dependent on fisheries, employed 2,002 western Alaska residents in 2005, with wages totaling $16.5 million. The 65 communities organized into the six private nonprofit CDQs represent approximately 26,500 Western Alaska residents.