Ocean Harvest Technology Group PLC on Tuesday said it raised gross proceeds of £6 million in its initial public offering on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
Based on its placing price of 16 pence per share, it said its market capitalisation will be approximately £20 million upon admission to trading on Tuesday morning. Following admission, it will have 125.9 million shares in issue.
Shares in Ocean Harvest were quoted around 17.13 pence less than one hour into trading as a publicly listed company.
Founded in 2005, the Reading, England-based commercial-scale producer of seaweed blend ingredients for the animal feed market has further operations in Galway, Ireland and the Binh Duong province, Vietnam.
It develops seaweed ingredients that ‘have been demonstrated in scientific trials to deliver a number of specific benefits across multiple animal species’. These benefits include lower mortality levels, higher growth rates and improvements in feed conversion ratios, it said.
It plans to use the proceeds of the IPO to conduct marketing and expand its global sales team, build out its supply chain further and conduct more research and development. It also plans to expand production capacity at its Vietnam facility and provide general working capital for the business.
In its last full year as a privately funded company, Ocean Harvest reported a pretax loss of €2.9 million in 2022, widening from €1.5 million in 2021, although revenue was up 50% to €3.0 million from €2.0 million. Cost of sales rose 47% to €2.2 million from €1.5 million, while operating expenses were up 84% to €3.5 million from €1.9 million.
Ocean Harvest highlighted 2022 product revenue of €2.5 million, up 67% from 2021, while it continues to see ‘strong’ demand for its products, it said. It remains confident in achieving further significant revenue growth in 2023 and look forward to driving further commercial progress across the group, it added.
‘Today’s listing is an important milestone for Ocean Harvest Technology and will assist the rapid growth of the group. The funds raised will enable the group to continue to strengthen its global sales team and build out its supply chain. We will also continue to invest in [research and development] to innovate and enhance our existing customer offering in the fast growing markets the group operates in,’ said Chief Executive Officer Mark Williams.
‘I am grateful for all the hard work of our team, and I would like to thank our new and existing shareholders for their support. We are confident in our ability deliver on the opportunities ahead and I look forward to providing updates on our progress as our business develops.’
Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
