Proximar Seafood, which operates a land-based salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, has launched a subsequent offering to raise up to an additional NOK 25 million (USD 2.4 million, EUR 2.2 million) for its project.
The funds will be raised through the sale of an additional 12.5 million shares, at a share price of NOK 2 (USD 0.19, EUR 0.17) per share.
The latest offering is an extension of a successful private placement on 14 December 2023 which raised NOK 140 million (USD 14.2 million, EUR 13.2 million) to cover additional capex and financing costs. In its Q3 2023 update, the company said higher than expected costs forced the company to raise an additional NOK 165 million (USD 15.6 million, EUR 14.5 million). All told, as of its Q3 2023 update, the company’s total capex was NOK 1.24 billion (USD 118 million, EUR 109 million), up from NOK 1.19 billion (USD 113 million, EUR 104 million) in Q2 2023.
ABG Sundal Collier and Pareto Securities are managing the offering, while Advokatfirmaet Thommessen is acting as the legal advisor.
The subsequent offering comes after two updates from Proximar about operations at its Japan-based RAS. On 20 December, the company announced It successfully transferred its first fish to a post-smolt grow-out facility, following the completion of construction in September.
“It is a great milestone to finally initiate operations in the PSG facility," Proximar COO Dharma Rajeswaran said. "We have been waiting with excitement for this day, and I am pleased to see that the move into the new building has been successful. Our team has done a fantastic job in preparing for this transfer."
Soon after, the company announced that as of 31 December, its standing biomass had reached 40.7 metric tons (MT), up from 11.5 MT as of 30 September – with lower mortality than expected.
“We are very pleased to see the positive development in our biomass continuing through the fourth quarter, in-line with our expectations,” Proximar CEO Joachim Nielsen said.
The biomass rate of the grow-out facility, however, was slightly behind what it will be when fully oeprational. Nielsen said this is due to the biofilter the company plans to use.
“During start-up of the grow-out facility, we have limited feeding capacity until the biofilter is matured,” he said. “The combination of this impacted growth slightly.”
The company said it currently has 10 batches of salmon in production, and that its targeted long-term harvest level will be 5,300 MT of salmon, head-on gutted, per year in Phase 1 of the project.
Photo courtesy of Proximar Seafood
