Atlantic Sapphire raises £27.5m in private placement
Land-based fish farmer was left short after poor price achievement but is now ready ‘to show what we can do’ says chief executive
Florida land-based salmon farmer Atlantic Sapphire has raised NOK 369 million (£27.5m / US $34.8m) in a private placement of more than 307 million new shares at a price of NOK 1.20.
The company said problems with gender maturation leading to poorer price achievement meant that it needed more money and prompted the share issue.
Existing investors who bought new shares included Norwegian salmon farmer Nordlaks, which was awarded shares equivalent to a total subscription amount of almost NOK 52.2m.
AS Invest AS, a close associate of Atlantic Sapphire board member André Skarbø, was allocated almost 3.9m offer shares corresponding to a total subscription amount of more than NOK 4.65m.
Atlantic Sapphire’s chief financial officer Karl Øystein Øyehaug was allocated 83,333 shares corresponding to a total subscription amount of NOK 99,999.60.
Strawberry Equities AS, a close associate of Atlantic Sapphire chairman Kenneth Jarl Andersen, was allocated almost 28.8m shares corresponding to a total subscription amount of more than NOK 34.5m.
Production update
- It is reported that the temperatures in the growth systems have stabilised around 14°C after the delivery of new coolers in September 2023. “All cooling systems have performed according to expectations in the five months since installation.”
- The batches transferred to growth tanks after the new cooling installations show strong growth with performance in line with expectations or better.
- General farming conditions are stable and support good biomass growth, the total net biomass increase in Q4 2023 was ~1,100 tonnes live weight, with a standing biomass of ~3,050 tonnes LW at the end of 2023.
- Batches of fish affected by previous temperature problems are to be culled over the coming months, while the proportion of superior salmon and average price achievement is expected to increase.
- The largest part of the biomass supplement in the period ahead is expected to come from batches that have not been exposed to temperature challenges.
“Since the start in Miami, we never had the temperatures we wanted, but now we do. So now the time has come to show what we can do, and it looks very promising,” said chief executive Johan Andreassen in a video presentation.
