Atlantic Sapphire, Gigante Salmon subsequent offerings come up short

Subsequent share offerings from both land-based salmon-farming firms Atlantic Sapphire and Gigante Salmon have come up undersubscribed over the past week.

But historically, they aren’t the only subsequent offerings for aquaculture firms listed on the Oslo Børs that haven’t hit the maximum value on offer. 

Atlantic Sapphire, which is building a salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Miami, Florida, U.S.A., reached its NOK 702 million (then USD 65 million, EUR 61 million) goal for its September 2023 private placement in eight hours. The company then announced a subsequent offering of up to 100 million new shares in the company, which would have led to further proceeds of NOK 140 million (12.9 million, EUR 11.8 million).  But the subsequent offering resulted in the sale of just 18.2 million offer shares for NOK 1.8 million (USD 166,300, EUR 152,600), the company announced on 7 November – days after the company announced its CEO Johan Andreassen was stepping down. 

Roughly a week later, Bodø, Norway-based Gigante Salmon – which is building a flow-through salmon aquaculture system – announced its own subsequent offering also didn't achieve full subscription.

The company first held a private placement in October in two different tranches that raised NOK 200 million (then USD 18.2 million, EUR 17.3 million) in under eight hours. Gigante  then launched a contemplated subsequent offering on 2 November. By 15 November the company announced the final results: its offering of over 2.77 million new shares had only garnered purchases of 840,445 shares, raising NOK 6 million (USD 554,450, EUR 508,800).  

The final results of a subsequent offering not reaching the full total of shares on offer is not unique to Gigante Salmon and Atlantic Sapphire in the aquaculture industry. In July, Norcod announced its subsequent offering also came in under the 1.3 million shares on offer, with the company only receiving valid subscriptions for 328,267 shares. This was after a highly successful private placement that saw more interest than expected, which led the company to increase the allocations on offer. Norcod ended up bringing in NOK 190.5 million (then USD 18.3 million, EUR 16.6 million), outstripping its goals.

More recently, on 13 November, Northern Drilling – an international drilling contractor for oil and gas wells – also had a subsequent offering come in under the total on offer. Of the 32 million shares the company had available, 18.4 million shares were subscribed.

Another company, Desert Control AS, also had a subsequent offer come in under the full amount. The company – which specializes in AgTech solutions to combat desertification – offered 2.22 million shares, but only received 1.18 million offer shares.  

Photo courtesy of Gigante Salmon