Andfjord Salmon placement raises NOK 615m

Norwegian land based fish farmer Andfjord Salmon last night boosted its balance sheet by the equivalent of £45m.

The company announced it has allocated 15,974,026 offer shares through a private placement at a subscription price of NOK 38.50 per share, raising gross proceeds of approximately NOK 615 million.

Earlier this month Andfjord Salmon announced debt financing totalling NOK 825 million (£60m) for the development of its new land farm project at Kvalnes.

In a late Oslo Stock Exchange announcement the company said the following primary insiders were allocated offer shares at the offer price:

* Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar, SA, represented on the board of directors by Antonio Serrano, was allocated 10,000,000 Offer Shares

* Eidsfjord Sjøfarm AS, represented on the board of directors by Knut Holmøy, was allocated 2,077,922 Offer Shares

* Andfjord Holding AS, represented on the board of directors by Roy Bernt Pettersen, was allocated 244,155 Offer Shares

Andfjord Salmon said the net proceeds from the private placement will be used to expand its production capacity at Kvalnes and for general corporate purposes.

The announcement added: “ The board is of the opinion that it is in the common interest of the company and its shareholders to raise equity through the private issue.

“The private issue enables the company to secure equity financing to expand the company’s production capacity at Kvalnes, shortly after securing commitments for bank financing.

“ Furthermore, the directed issue involves reduced execution and execution risk and gives the company the opportunity to exploit current market conditions and raise capital more quickly, at a lower discount compared to a rights issue and without guarantee commissions as is normally seen with rights issues.”

ABG Sundal Collier ASA, Arctic Securities and SpareBank 1 Markets are acting as joint bookrunners in connection with the private placement.

Located on the island of Andøya on the Arctic Archipelago of Vesterålen, Andfjord Salmon uses a flow-through system to farm salmon on land, and says its first batch has shown good biological results.

Last week, Andfjord announced it had entered a strategic partnership with fish handling technology business Cflow.

Martin Rasmussen, CEO of Andfjord Salmon, said: “Through this collaboration, we will merge our expertise in land-based aquaculture with Cflow’s technology, enabling safe and sustainable production processes for live fish.

“Technology plays a vital role in the modernisation of aquaculture. Having control over factors influencing fish welfare and the environment leads to optimized operations, energy efficiency, and predictable production.”