Måsøval Group on way to Oslo Stock Exchange.
“Oslo Stock Exchange has received an application from Måsøval for admission to trading on Euronext Growth,” it was written in a brief stock exchange announcement on Thursday morning.
The company started fish farming as early as 1972. Today’s CEO, Lars Måsøval, is a third-generation fish farmer.
Integrated
It is an integrated aquaculture company that is now heading for a listing. The Måsøval Group includes both hatchery and fish farms and delousing vessels. Måsøval has long been one of the largest owners in Norway Royal Salmon (NRS), but sold out in the autumn of 2020.
In the same transaction, the parent company Måsøval Eiendom took over NRS’s shares in the Icelandic fish farming company Ice Fish Farm, which is already listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. However, the Icelandic business is not included in the IPO.
“Only the Norwegian business will be listed,” Lars Måsøval told SalmonBusiness. “Måsøval Eiendom is a family company and the Icelandic business is a sister company to Måsøval Fiskeoppdrett,” he said.
Two shareholders
The Måsøval Group’s wholly-owned fish farming company in Norway, Måsøval Fiskeoppdrett, harvested about 17,000 tonnes of salmon in 2020. The company bought additional production capacity at auction last summer. The Aqua Semi project, with four development licences, has additional opportunities for growth in Norway.
Lars Måsøval said he was looking forward to the step of taking a family-owned company to the stock exchange.
“It will be positive. We believe in what we do. But it will be different to have a thousand shareholders compared to two, which me and Anders are today,” he said.
According to the news site Dagens Næringsliv, the investment bank trio Carnegie, DNB Markets and Sparebank 1 Markets are the facilitators of the IPO, where EUR 81.5 million is planned through a share issue and a divestment from the Måsøval family. Equity is priced at EUR 320 million before the transaction.
