Salmon Evolution raised an additional NOK 258 million ($23 million) from existing shareholders and new industrial owners for the company’s land-based salmon farm in Norway. Ronja Capital, the world’s largest wellboat owner, is now the largest of the new investors.

“The decision by the present shareholders to provide us with further capital is a vote of confidence,” said Kristofer Reiten, chair of Salmon Evolution. “The experience and expertise possessed by the shareholder structure over the whole salmon value chain will make a big quality contribution to our future development.”

Salmon Evolution will utilize flow-through technology with reuse in exploiting clean and freshwater from the sea off Indre Harøy in Hustadvika local authority with an annual production capacity of 36,000 tons of salmon.

Ronja highlights the technology chosen in relation to growth opportunities, risk and return as the most important reasons for opting to become a shareholder in Salmon Evolution. “Low biological risk has been the biggest consideration for us in assessing investment opportunities in land-based aquaculture,” said Tore Tønseth, investment vice president at Ronja Capital. “Our view of the company hasn’t changed, despite the fluctuations in the financial market over recent months. We’ve followed this project over a long time and now want to contribute to the company’s continued development.”

“We’re very gratified that we’ve attracted a number of industrial and well-capitalized shareholders with a clear foothold along the Norwegian coast and in our industry. Our success in securing this capital injection in the present financial climate is a clear confirmation of our robustness. A strong network, expertise and financial room for maneuver will contribute to very exciting progress for us,” said Odd Tore Finnøy, CEO of Salmon Evolution.