Sky-high expectations for land-based salmon farmer.
Atlantic Sapphire posted a pre-tax profit of $ -9.4 million in the first half of 2019, compared to a pre-tax profit of $ -6.0 million in the same period in 2018.
Turnover was a modest $ 2 million in the first six months of the year, driven by fish farming on land in Hvide Sande on the Danish west coast.
But it is the outlook, not the current situation, that drives the values of the company. Expectations are sky high for the company’s huge aquaculture facility one hour drive southwest of Miami.
Avoid air freight
Atlantic Sapphire plans to harvest 220,000 tonnes of salmon in 2031, equivalent to half of salmon consumption in the United States.
The fact that salmon prices are higher in the United States than Europe, as a function of air freight, makes the company confident in producing salmon at competitive production costs compared to open cages in Northern Europe and Chile.
Nearly tripled
These expectations have made Atlantic Sapphire a winner at the Oslo stock exchange.
The company’s shares have nearly tripled in value since late summer last year. On Thursday morning, the Atlantic Sapphire share was last traded at NOK 120.
This means that the company’s share capital is priced at €850 million. The company’s two founders, Johan E. Andreassen and Bjørn-Vegard Løvik, own 17 percent of the shares. Their shares now have a value of €144 million.
