Runar Vatne, a board member of Atlantic Sapphire and owner of Vatne Equity AS, acquired a high-value stake in the Miami, Florida, U.S.A.-based salmon aquaculture producer.
Vatne purchased 300,000 shares in Atlantic Sapphire worth NOK 35.4 million (USD 3.9 million, EUR 3.5 million) through the Oslo Stock Exchange. Vatne now holds 3.3 million shares in Atlantic Sapphire – around 4.63 percent of the company’s outstanding shares and votes.
“The company is now entering its next expansion phase. I look forward to contributing actively to the continued development of a company that I believe has enormous potential to grow and create significant shareholder value producing delicious, healthy, sustainable seafood,” Vatne said in a press release in early November, when he joined Atlantic Sapphire’s board of directors.
Because Vatne made the stock purchase in the secondary market on the Oslo Stock Exchange, it does not result in any new capital to Atlantic Sapphire, Finance Director Karl Øystein Øyehaug told SeafoodSource.
The company’s market cap is now NOK 8.9 billion (USD 972 million, EUR 878 billion), according to Øyehaug.
In related news, Ålesund, Norway-based Hofseth Biocare ASA recently partnered with Atlantic Sapphire to produce salmon oil and other salmon byproducts.
The two firms plan to build and operate a facility in Miami to produce products from salmon off-cuts supplied by Atlantic Sapphire.
Logo courtesy of Atlantic Sapphire
