Investor still buying Grieg after losing big

by
Salmon Business

Losing EUR 6.5 million since November not stopping private investor

Eye doctor and private investor, Ole-Morten Halvorsen, experiences a world of contrasts while squirrelling away shares in Grieg Seafood.

At the beginning of November, Halvorsen earned EUR 3 million, when Grieg presented outstanding results for the third quarter of 2017. Halvorsen is the second-largest shareholder in Grieg Seafood with 4.53 percent of the company’s stock.

Read Grieg Seafood up USD110 million in 30 min

But, since the middle of November the share price has fallen over 16 percent to around NOK 70 per share due to the salmon price’s negative trajectory, writes newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. The falling share price means a paper loss of 6.57 EUR million for Halvorsen. According to the newspaper, the figure is already offset by a dividend payment of one krone per share on November 16th.

Five million shares
Even with the basket of losses on both the share price and the salmon price, Halvorsen still has faith in the company. Last week, he bought 100,000 shares in Grieg Seafood for around NOK 7.5 million.

That means Halvorsen today owns about five million shares in Grieg Seafood worth EUR 35.8 million at today’s share price.

Last week Nordea Bank chose to downgrade Grieg Seafood, among others, to “sell” from “hold”, and the price target for Grieg Seafood was pegged at NOK 55. If that becomes the standard, the Halvorsens investment in Grieg Seafood could shrink by a further EUR 7.69 million .

Billion-kroner portfolio
Halvorsen is also the ninth-biggest shareholder in Austevoll Seafood and among the largest shareholders in Leroy Seafood. Via his ownership in OM Holding, he held a stock and bond portfolio worth EUR 174.9 million at the start of the year yet, on the other hand, company accounting from 2016 reveals the company has nearly EUR 93.1 million in debt to institutional credit lenders.

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