Genetically engineered salmon-farming company AquaBounty Technologies posted lower net losses for the three months ending 30 September 2024 as the company’s costs dropped in part due to a massive drop in sales.
AquaBounty posted net loss of USD 3.4 million (EUR 3.1 million) in Q3 2024, down from a net loss of USD 6.1 million (EUR 5.6 million) in the same period of 2023. Those losses came on just USD 47,812 (EUR 43,735) in product revenue, compared to USD 733,000 (EUR 670,000) in 2023.
For the nine months ending 30 September 2024, the company has posted net losses of USD 65 million (EUR 59.5 million), largely due to a long-lived asset impairment of USD 48.7 million (EUR 44.5 million), which caused its losses to spike in Q2 2024. That total is up from the USD 19 million (EUR 17 million) in losses it had posted as of 30 September 2023.
“We continue to focus our efforts on working with our investment banking partner to extend our cash runway, while reviewing a variety of financing initiatives to maintain liquidity,” AquaBounty President and CEO David Melbourne said in a release.
Melbourne said that the company is still planning to sell its Rollo Bay salmon egg production and broodstock facilities in Prince Edward Island, Canada, as a means of addressing its capital requirements.
“As I stated in our announcement, the Rollo Bay farm was purchased and developed to support an expansion plan for five large land-based grow-out farms,” Melbourne said. “Since we will not require the egg output from the Rollo Bay farm in the near to mid-term time frame, and since we will retain sufficient egg production capacity for our Ohio farm from our hatchery in Bay Fortune, we determined that the Rollo Bay farm could be sold at this time to address the Company’s immediate cash requirements without impacting our long-term strategy.”
In its results, AquaBounty said cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash totaled just USD 500,000 (EUR 457,000) – down from USD 9.2 million it had as of 31 December 2023.
In its Q3 2024 results, AquaBounty listed assets held for sale with a value of USD 35 million (EUR 32 million). It acquired the Rollo Bay facility – formerly an Atlantic Sea Smolt facility – in 2016 for USD 700,000 (EUR 640,000) in cash and has since been expanding it to meet increasing demand for salmon eggs in North America.
Melbourne said that AquaBounty has also been working to reduce its costs, which showed in its Q3 2024 results. AquaBounty posted total costs and expenses in Q3 2024 of USD 2.4 million (EUR 2.2 million), down from USD 6.8 million (EUR 6.2 million) in Q3 2023.
“We are fully committed to securing the pathway forward for our Company and stockholders, and we will continue to work to stabilizethe business in the short term and drive value creation in the long term,” Melbourne said. “I look forward to sharing continued updates in the future.”
