Iceland salmon farmer raises €170m for refinancing and growth
Interest rate on Arctic Fish loans will be linked to sustainability performance
Arctic Fish, an Icelandic salmon farmer majority owned by Mowi, today announced that it had secured credit of €170 million (£145.4m / NOK 1.96 billion) to refinance its existing bank facilities and support planned growth.
The credit facility with Danske Bank, DNB, Nordea, and Rabobank comprises a term loan of €120m and a revolving credit of €50m. Two one-year extension options will provide flexibility for the parties to agree to extend the maturity of the facility.
Arctic Fish said in a press release that it intends to amend the facility to become sustainability-linked, with interest margin tied to the Arctic Fish group’s performance against predefined targets related to certain sustainability key performance indicators. Danske Bank, DNB, Nordea Bank, and Rabobank have been engaged as joint sustainability coordinators to assist in this respect.
Bigger harvest
Oslo-listed Arctic Fish said in February that it expects to almost double its harvest this year, from 8,561 gutted weight tonnes in 2022 to 15,300 gwt. The company suffered a setback later in the month when fire damaged a hatchery under construction at Tálknafjördur, although that will not affect this year’s harvest.
Arctic Fish has farming licences for 27,100 tonnes maximum allowed biomass, of which 5,300 tonnes relate to licences for rainbow trout that are in the process of being converted to salmon licences.
The group also has applications for an additional 4,800 tonnes of MAB for salmon.
A 51.28% stake in the company was sold for €181m to Mowi last year after European competition watchdogs ruled that the shares – previously held by Norway Royal Salmon (NRS) - had to change hands if a merger between fish farmers SalMar and NRS owner NTS went ahead.
