January 29, 2014

Marine Harvest becomes first aquaculture firm listed on NYSE

Marine Harvest is the first vertically integrated aquaculture firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

"This is a big day for Marine Harvest and the salmon farming industry," said Alf-Helge Aarskog, CEO of Marine Harvest.

Aarskog sees a number of advantages of being listed at the NYSE. "The listing gives us exposure to a larger part of the US investment community, including those who are not mandated to invest in Norway. Marine Harvest should also benefit from being aligned to the land based protein companies listed in the US. These companies are generally larger than Marine Harvest, but we have some superior attributes in terms of margins and growth prospects which should be attractive to investors," said Aarskog.

He added that it gives them access to a wider portion of the US investor base. It will also be beneficial to have a currency that can be applied in future consolidation of the industry. He said that they have a good starting point with a market cap of about US$5 billion and ownership of about 22% of the global production of farmed Atlantic salmon.

Big talk of the company's vision to 'lead the blue revolution' is no doubt intended to capture the imagination of those investors to which Marine Harvest is now open.