The land-based salmon farmer has signed a committed term sheet with banks Nordea and Sparebank.
The company, which is currently building its first facility at Indre Harøy in Møre og Romsdal, Western Norway, announced on Friday morning that it had landed a comprehensive loan package.
“Salmon Evolution is pleased to announce that it has now entered into a committed term sheet with Nordea as agent and Sparebanken Vest as co-lender for a senior secured debt financing package of up to NOK 625 million (EUR 62.5 million .ed) relating to its phase 1 build-out at Indre Harøy,” the company wrote.
Twofold
The debt financing package consists of EUR 52.5 million in senior secured credit facility which will be used to finance construction CAPEX for Indre Harøy phase 1. EUR 10 million has been in loans for working capital purposes, hereunder financing of biomass and receivables.
The construction facility and the term loan facility are partly guaranteed by the Norwegian Export Credit Guarantee Agency (GIEK). The loan agreement runs over 15 years.
Salmon Evolution CEO Håkon André Berg said that the “finalisation of this committed term sheet at commercial terms deemed very competitive, is yet another major milestone for Salmon Evolution and secures a fully funded platform for our committed projects”.
“We are very grateful for the support shown by the Lenders and GIEK and view this as a solid testament to Salmon Evolution’s technology approach and overall business model,” added Berg.
Disruptive
“We have followed Salmon Evolution’s development with great interest for a long time and are very happy about being able to contribute to the realisation of such a ground-breaking project. The combination of a strong industrial ownership, solid management team, strong ESG profile and a conservative but yet disruptive business model fits very well with Nordea’s ambitions of being a leading financing partner for the Norwegian seafood industry”.
Nordea head of business banking seafood Louise Haahjem said that the bank has “followed Salmon Evolution’s development with great interest for a long time and are very happy about being able to contribute to the realisation of such a ground-breaking project”.
The combination of a strong industrial ownership, solid management team, strong ESG profile and a conservative but yet disruptive business model fits very well with Nordea’s ambitions of being a leading financing partner for the Norwegian seafood industry,” she added.
On completion, Salmon Evolution will have an annual production capacity of about 36,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon.
