Strong interest in Norcod placement

THE Norwegian cod farmer Norcod has announced that a private placement was not only successfully completed at the weekend, but went beyond expectations..

Such was the high level of interest, the size of the private placement was increased to allow for an allocation of 6,349,612 offer shares at a subscription price of NOK 30 per offer Share, which will raise gross proceeds to the company of almost NOK 190.5m (£14.7m).

The original figure was between NOK 125m and NOK 175m (£10m to £13.5m).

The company said that completion of the Private Placement is subject to an extraordinary general meeting of the company to be held on or about 24 April 2023, to issue the offer shares.

The net proceeds from the placement will be used to increase biomass in accordance with the company’s production plan and to develop two new locations and for general corporate purposes.

Trading in Norcod was temporarily suspended on the Oslo Stock Exchange on Friday.

A brief statement from the exchange said the suspension had been imposed “in anticipation of an announcement from the company, which came later on Friday.

Norcod earlier issued a first quarter trading update in which it harvested 3,362 tonnes, whole fish equivalent (WFE) between January and March this year.

The biomass at sea at the end of March was 4,279 tonnes – equivalent to 5,384,000 individual fish.

It has been a difficult period for the company during which it had to bring forward harvesting in a number of cages because spawning cod had been discovered.

This order, said Norcod, led to significant pressure on its operating expenses and cash flows.