Salmon Evolution raises half a billion kroner in an afternoon

Salmon Evolution last night successfully completed a private placement, raising more than half a billion kroner in the process.

The issue of 68,181,818 new shares in two tranches was only announced yesterday afternoon, but it was soon fully subscribed and brought in a total of NOK 525 million (around £40m).

The subscription price was NOK 7.70, but the share price at the end of trading last night closed at NOK 8.34 (£0.64) which meant the issue was priced at a discount of 7.7%.

The company said the net proceeds will be used to help fund Phase 2 of its land-based salmon farming facility at Indre Harøy in southern Norway and for general corporate purposes.

A stock exchange announcement said Salmon Evolution hired DNB Markets and Nordea as main facilitators and Arctic Securities and Pareto Securities as co-facilitators for the placement.

The announcement said the following primary insiders (PDMR) of the company and their closely related companies were allocated the following shares:

• Ronja Capital II AS, a company closely linked to Tore A. Tønseth (chairman of the board), was awarded 2,597,403 shares;
• Ocean Industries AS, a company closely linked to Glen Bradley (board member), was awarded 25,974 shares;
• Anne Breiby (board member) was awarded 64,935 shares;
• Trollkyrkja AS, a company closely linked to Trond Vadset Veibust (CFO), was awarded 32,468 shares;
• Anno Invest AS, a company closely linked to Odd Frode Roaldsnes (CCO), was awarded 250,000 shares.

Salmon Evolution recently completed the first harvest at Indre Harøy.

The company is also involved in an advanced fish farm project in South Korea, in partnership with Dongwon Industries.

Salmon Evolution has also said that it is evaluating possible new sites in Canada and the United States.