Salmon Evolution has secured a finance package that will be used to complete construction on its first production facility at Indre Harøe.
The loan agreement totalling NOK 1,550 million with DNB and Nordea will be used to found both phase 1 and phase 2 of the development, plus improve cash flow and give the company a significantly lower margin.
Furthermore, the debt financing package allows for an increase of the company’s existing overdraft facility related to working capital financing from current NOK 100 million to NOK 300 million.
New facility
Strategically located on the Norwegian west coast, Indre Harøe offers established infrastructure for salmon farming and plentiful supplies of renewable energy.
The Indre Harøy facility has been designed for a total annual production capacity of 31,500 tonnes head-on gutted salmon from its completion in 2028. It is being developed in three phases, with phase one providing an annual production capacity of 7,900 tonnes of head-on gutted salmon from 2023.
Under the first phase of construction, the facility successfully completed its first harvest in November 2022.
As yet, the company has not taken any material investment decision or entered any definitive construction agreement as to Indre Harøy phase 2 and maintains full flexibility both as to timing and spending.
Meanwhile and as per its Q4 2022 report, Salmon Evolution said it is on track for profitable farming operations in Q2 2023 and steady state production from late Q3 2023.
Its production ramp up is proceeding according to plan with batch 2 on track for a Q2 2023 harvest, beginning in early May and ending by June.
In late February, the company stocked batch 5 at Indre Harøy, consisting of about 257,000 fish with an average weight of 230 grams. Batch 6 and 7 are planned to be stocked during Q2 2023.
Salmon Evolution recorded all-time high biomass production in March with approximately 320 tonnes in net biomass gain for the month.
As of 31 March 2023 the company’s standing biomass was almost 1,500 tonnes LW, which represents a doubling from 733 tonnes since 31 December 2022.
