After entering a deal to sell its Feed Ingredients business for USD 590 million (EUR 542.1 million), Oslo, Norway-based krill-harvesting and biotech company Aker BioMarine reported Q2 2024 revenue of USD 94 million (EUR 86.4 million), including its newly discontinued operations, marking a 6 percent increase year over year.
The acquiring party of Aker’s Feed Ingredients business will be a newly established company, owned 60 percent by global industrial investment firm American Industrial Partners (AIP) and 40 percent by Aker Capital.
Aker BioMarine CEO Matts Johansen said following the transaction, the company will mainly focus on human nutrition, particularly “the large and growing” omega-3 market.
“We aim to grow by increasing our market share and expanding our product categories through innovation. In parallel, we will continue to explore how we can drive shareholder value by enabling potential partnerships and transactions for each of the remaining business units,” he said.
Once the deal is finalized, Aker BioMarine intends to refinance its debt to obtain leverage for its remaining businesses and distribute an extraordinary dividend after closing.
Solely counting its operations that will continue post-sale, Aker’s Q2 2024 revenue amounted to USD 49.2 million (EUR 45.2 million) in the quarter, up 4 percent from the same period last year due to higher sales in its Human Health Ingredients segment.
The company’s EBITDA for continuing operations was USD 7.7 million (EUR 7.1 million), down 22 percent from Q2 2023. Aker attributed this drop to the inclusion of new products with lower margin.
The firm’s total EBITDA, counting Feed Ingredients, was USD 29 million (EUR 26.6 million), up 35 percent year over year.
By segment, Human Health Ingredients delivered Q2 2024 revenue growth of 22 percent to USD 25.4 million (EUR 23.3 million), with earnings from krill oil-equivalent products up 7 percent year over year. The segment reported an adjusted EBITDA of USD 8.9 million (EUR 8.2 million) in the quarter, down from USD 9.5 million (EUR 8.7 million) in the same period last year despite higher sales, mainly due to lower margins on new product categories.
Aker's Human Health Ingredients had already begun purchasing meal from the newly established company that acquired Feed Ingredients and will continue to do so post-sale at a fixed price with an annual index regulation.
Consumer Health Products delivered lower Q2 revenues of USD 25 million (EUR 23 million) on a stable gross margin, resulting in a lower EBITDA of USD 1 million (EUR 918,732).
Aker's Emerging Business segment also saw its Q2 revenue decrease to USD 2.3 million (EUR 2.1 million). It reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of USD -1.3 million (EUR -1.2 million) in the quarter, an improvement from the loss of USD -2.1 million (EUR -1.9 million) from the same period last year. The company said it is evaluating measures to reduce costs for the segment.
For the last quarter of Feed Ingredients under Aker’s purview, its Q2 sales totaled USD 51.8 million (EUR 47.6 million), including sales of meal to the Human Health Ingredients segment. This marked a 25 percent increase year over year, with the segment’s sales volume increasing 5 percent and prices being 20 percent higher than in Q2 2023.
The segment also reported an adjusted EBITDA of USD 25.7 million (EUR 23.6 million) for the quarter, up from USD 12.9 million (EUR 11.9 million) in the corresponding period of last year.
