“We do not expect a decision until late January or early February.”
It may be many months more before it is clarified whether the Atlantic Sapphire salmon plant in Hvide Sande in Denmark will be rebuilt after the catastrophic fire in mid-September, according to Danish publication Dagbladet Ringkøbing Skjern.
The facility in Hvide Sande is insured for more than $33 million.
Read more: Fire at Atlantic Sapphire’s Denmark facility
“The police have not yet been able to determine the cause of the fire; there is no suspicion that it should have been set, so it does not have as high a priority as the fires where it is the case. We do not expect a decision until late January or early February,” director Thue Holm has said.
Once the cause of the fire has been determined, the insurance company will start investigating the matter. It may take several months, but Thue Holm expects confirmation during in the first half of the year.
“When it is available, our board will then decide what to do with the plant in Hvide Sande,” said Holm.
If the board decides to rebuild, it will take at least a year and a half before the plant can be ready for production again – 95 per cent of the factory was lost in the fire, and up to 300,000 salmon were killed.
The Hvide Sande facility was first established in 2011 under the name Langsand Laks and today has Atlantic Sapphire as the main shareholder with an ownership share of just over 92 per cent.
On Monday morning, Atlantic Sapphire stock was trading 5.1 per cent down.
Read more: Does Atlantic Sapphire need to raise more equity?
