Atlantic Sapphire seeking more cash

The Florida-based salmon farming company Atlantic Sapphire is seeking more cash – up to US $80m (£61m) in new equity and convertible loans.

It was revealed this week that three major shareholders including north Norwegian salmon farmer Nordlaks had presubscribed some $60m (£46m) of that figure.

The news of the new fundraising exercise sent the company’s share plummeting yesterday – by almost 80% at one point.

Atlantic Sapphire also disclosed its half year results which showed a turnover of just over $11m (£8.4m) and a pre-tax loss of $52m (£39.7m). It also produced a harvest volume of 2,395 tonnes during the period.

The Oslo announcement was headed: “Atlantic Sapphire ASA: Proposed fully underwritten rights issue of up to $60 million and directed convertible loan issue of minimum $20 million.”

The company also said it had identified bottlenecks in the water treatment system, as well as unplanned downtime, which has had the effect of limiting feed volume.

At the same time the company has found its sales price falling, driven by the sale of sexually mature fish in Q1 and small fish in Q2.

The company has also seen low average carcass weight due to excess fish in the tanks, given its current feeding capacity.

Several measures have now been implemented to increase slaughter weight. In the short term, with low mortality and current limitations in feeding volume, the company has reduced the number of fish to allow the remaining fish to grow to a larger slaughter weight.

In the medium term, the company has initiated measures to increase the feeding capacity of the plant.

Atlantic Sapphire farms its salmon in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility.