Norcod private placement draws in over USD 18 million

Norway-based cod farming company Norcod successfully raised over NOK 190 million (USD 18.3 million, EUR 16.6 million) in a private placement, outstripping its original goal.

The company announced the private placement of new shares on 13 April, seeking gross proceeds of between NOK 125 million and NOK 175 million (USD 12.1 million and USD 16.9 million, EUR 10.9 million and 15.3 million). ABG Sundal Collier, which has worked with Norcod in past private placements, served as the sole bookrunner.

In an announcement to the Oslo Børs, the company said there was “high interest” in the private placement, which led the company to increase its share offer by over 6.3 million.

The company said the net proceeds of the transaction will be used to “increase biomass in accordance with the company’s production plan,” along with developing new farming locations and general corporate purposes.

The private placement is still subject to the extraordinary general meeting of the company, which will be held on 24 April.

The successful private placement comes after Norcod was forced to cull fish at two cages at its location in Frosvika, Norway after Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries found sexually mature cod at the facility – a move that the company said would cause a “significant” earnings drop.

The company appealed the decision to cull fish at five cages at three locations, but the Directorate of Fisheries upheld the decision on 12 April and ordered the culling of a further two cages at Frosvika with a deadline of 21 April.

The appeal decision came after the directorate announced it had found eggs from farmed cod in Meløy in Nordland, after samples were collected via a collaboration between the Directorate of Fisheries and the Institute of Marine Research. The eggs were compared genetically to farmed cod at Norcod’s location in Frosvika, finding 80 percent of the cod eggs “very similar to the farmed cod in the plant in question.”

“The analyzes do not provide an answer to whether the eggs originate from spawning in the facility, or the spawning of cod that have escaped from the facility,” Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries said.  

Photo courtesy of Norcod