Atlantic Sapphire’s Denmark facility hit by fire, stock price plunges

Atlantic Sapphire’s stock price plunged to its lowest level ever after the company announced its Danish “Bluehouse” recirculating aquaculture system facility was impacted by a fire on Wednesday, 15 September.

The company, in a filing to the Oslo Børs stock market, said that the “full Danish facility” will be impacted by the fire, and that the damage will be “material and substantial.” The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the company said that all of the fish being raised the facility are “expected to be lost.”

News of the fire had an immediate impact on the company’s stock price when the market opened on 16 September. The price, previously NOK 46.85 (USD 5.63, EUR 4.62), dropped immediately to NOK 36.60 (USD 4.24, EUR 3.61) on market open and settled on NOK 36.70 (USD 4.25, EUR 3.62) at market close. That amount is the lowest the stock price has been since it first entered the market in 2018.

The company said the facility is insured against fire for a full book-value of USD 33 million (EUR 28 million).

“All employees are safely out of the building and accounted for. There are no reported injuries,” the company said.

It also is yet another blow for the company, as the incident marks the second to occur at the facility the past three months. The company lost 400 metric tons of salmon at the facility in July, causing a USD 3 million (EUR 2.5 million) loss, after an incident with a filtration system in one of the company’s grow-out tanks.

In March, the company suffered a mass die-off of 500 metric tons of salmon at its Miami, Florida, U.S. facility, which was caused by a filtration system error. Soon after, in April, it reported a net loss of USD 55.2 million (EUR 46.9 million) in 2020, causing its share price to plunge.

Photo courtesy of Atlantic Sapphire