Gigante Salmon raises an extra NOK 6m in undersubscribed share offer
Gigante Salmon, which is building a 16,000-tonnes-per-year land-based fish farm in Norway, has raised just over NOK 6 million (£451,000) with a share issue, it announced today.
The company raised NOK 200m with a fully subscribed private placement of shares in October and had offered up to 2,777,777 new shares in a subsequent offering that opened on November 2 and closed yesterday. It received valid subscriptions for 840,445 shares, just under a third of the number on offer.
Chief financial officer Rune Johansen told Fiosh Farming Expert's Norwegian sister site, LandbasedAQ, that he is still very satisfied.
"Regarding the repair issue (subsequent offering), it was important for the company to give all shareholders who did not participate in the direct issue (private placement) in October the same opportunity to subscribe. The potential size of the repair issue was therefore set so that all shareholders had the opportunity to subscribe for their respective shares," he explained.
Equal treatment
He said that it was not expected that everyone would participate, especially since the share price has recently been around the issue price and it has been possible for those shareholders who missed out on the placement to restore their proportion of ownership in the market.
"The issue size was set out of consideration for the principle of equal treatment. We are very satisfied with the size of the repair issue and the trust the shareholders have shown us, both in the private issue in October and in the subsequent repair issue."
Gigante said in its third-quarter report that the proceeds
of the October private placement, together with NOK 100m financing from SpareBank
1 Finance Northern Norway, ensured that it had the money to complete the
facility at Indre Rosøy with increased quality and robustness. The amount raised by the repair issue will further strengthen the buffer capital.
Flow-through system
Phase 1 of Gigante’s development comprises a nursery basin where smolt grows from 100 grams to 1 kg in 11 months. Phase 2 covers two production basins where salmon will grow from 1 kg to harvest (4-7 kg). The first batch of 1.1 million smolts are due to be stocked in phase 1 this month.
Phase 2 is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2024, in time to be stocked with 1kg post-smolts.
Gigante Salmon, which is using a flow-through system, expects to harvest 5,300 gwt in late 2024/early 2025 and have a second harvest of the same size a year later from a second batch of smolts.
It plans full production from the second half of 2025, when it will stock 3.3m smolts for a harvest of 16,000 gwt in late 2026/early 2027.
