Frøya Municipality, Norway-headquartered salmon farmer SalMar ASA raised approximately NOK 2.7 billion (USD 325.6 million, EUR 267.5 million) in gross proceeds through a private placement of 4,500,000 new shares that took place on 8 June 2021 at a price of NOK 602 (USD 72.58, EUR 59.64) per share.
According to a company statement, the private placement, which took place through an accelerated book-building process managed by Arctic Securities AS and Carnegie AS, “received strong interest from high-quality institutional investors in the Nordics and internationally, and was multiple times oversubscribed.”
The new shares allocated in connection with the private placement do not carry the right to the NOK 20 (USD 2.41, EUR 1.98) dividend, as announced by the company on 9 April, 2021.
Completion of the private placement and the issuance of the new shares were resolved by the board of directors at a meeting held on 8 June, SalMar said.
The company's share capital following the private placement is NOK 29.45 million (USD 3.6 million, EUR 2.9 million) divided into 117,799,999 shares, each with a par value of NOK 0.25 (USD 0.03, EUR 0.02).
“In the current market environment, SalMar sees several attractive growth and investment opportunities across the entire value chain from roe to plate. These opportunities include purchase of salmon production licenses and company acquisitions, as well as organic investments in smolt production, coastal farming operations, harvesting, and processing activities,” the statement said.
It added that SalMar has also “taken a pole position” in developing large-scale offshore farming, initially in Norway and eventually in other suitable locations, and this is being pursued through the application for the establishment of the Smart Fish Farm pilot project for production in the open ocean, where the company has received eight development licenses.
The net proceeds from the private placement will be applied across these opportunities, subject to strict profitability and operational quality criteria, SalMar said.
Kverva Industrier AS, the company’s largest shareholder and a company closely related to SalMar President and CEO Gustav Witzøe, was allocated 498,339 new shares in the private placement and will, following completion, hold 59,934,476 shares in the company.
LIN AS, a company closely related to Leif Inge Nordhammer, the chairman of the company’s board, was allocated 25,065 new shares and will hold 1,299,685 shares in the company.
