February 5, 2024

Proximar Seafood initiates subsequent offering to boost funding for Japan salmon RAS project

Proximar Seafood, the operator of 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 (US$2.4 million) for its ongoing project, SeafoodSource reported.

The offering involves the sale of 12.5 million shares at a share price of NOK 2 (US$0.19) per share and follows a successful private placement on December 14, 2023, which initially raised NOK 140 million (US$14.2 million) to cover additional capital expenditures and financing costs. Due to higher-than-expected costs, the company decided to raise an additional NOK 165 million (US$15.6 million) in its Q3 2023 update. As of the same update, the total capex for the project stood at NOK 1.24 billion (US$118 million).

ABG Sundal Collier and Pareto Securities are managing the offering, with legal advice provided by Advokatfirmaet Thommessen.

This subsequent offering follows recent updates from Proximar regarding its RAS operations in Japan. On December 20, the company announced the successful transfer of its first fish to a post-smolt grow-out facility, marking a significant milestone in the project. Proximar COO Dharma Rajeswaran expressed excitement about the commencement of operations and praised the team's preparation for the transfer.

A subsequent update revealed that, as of December 31, the standing biomass had reached 40.7 metric tonnes (MT), a notable increase from 11.5 MT as of September 30, with lower mortality than expected. Proximar CEO Joachim Nielsen expressed satisfaction with the positive development and confirmed that the company currently has 10 batches of salmon in production.

While the biomass rate of the grow-out facility is slightly behind the anticipated fully operational level, Nielsen explained that this is due to the maturation process of the biofilter the company plans to use. Despite this impact on growth, the company remains on track to achieve its targeted long-term harvest level of 5,300 MT of salmon, head-on gutted, per year in Phase 1 of the project.

-        SeafoodSource