Gigante Salmon secures funding to cover additional NOK 200 million in costs for land-based salmon farm

Bodø, Norway-based Gigante Salmon has secured a path to additional funding to cover an additional NOK 200 million (USD 18.1 million, EUR 17.2 million) it expects to spend on its land-based salmon facility.

Gigante Salmon is  building a flow-through salmon aquaculture system with an expected production capacity of 20,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon annually. On 7 September, the company announced that inflation has lifted the total cost of the project to NOK 645 million (USD 58 million, EUR 55 million). 

“The cost increase is caused by general price increases, as previously communicated, in particular within electric power, in addition to changes that the company intends to make to secure fish welfare and accommodate sustainable production.” the company said at the time.

Now, the company said it has secured funding for the cost increases through a combination of debt financing and a new private placement. According to a release the company posted to the Oslo Børs, it has secured NOK 100 million (USD 9 million, EUR 8.6 million) in financing through a long-term leasing arrangement with SpareBank 1 Finans Nord-Norge. The terms of the new lease, the company said, are in line with the terms of the company’s existing long-term debt arrangements. 

Gigante Salmon said the rest of the funding will be sourced through a private placement of new shares, led by SpareBank 1 Markets and SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge Kapitalmarked. It added that the company’s main shareholder, Gigante Havbruk, intends to subscribe in the new private placement.  for up to NOK 100 million.

The company did not offer any update on its plans to stock smolt in the facility. The company originally planned to release smolt into its land-based facility in October 2023, but shifted that plan to Q4 2023.

“This [delay] will lead to production start with a larger smolt and will not change the progress plan with the first fish ready for slaughter at the end of 2024. No change in production volume is expected,” Gigante Salmon CEO Helge E. W. Albertsen said in September.  

Photo courtesy of Gigante Salmon