Lerøy in £37 million green bond issue

The group, which has a BBB plus stable rating, informed the Oslo Stock Exchange yesterday afternoon that it “is contemplating” the issue of NOK 500 million (£37.23 million) in senior unsecured green bonds, with fixed and/or floating coupon and a term of four or seven years, subject to inter alia market conditions. Lerøy has now announced that the issue was a success and was oversubscribed.

 

An amount equal to the net proceeds of the contemplated bond issue will be applied to finance or refinance green projects, as further defined by the green finance framework.

 

Danske Bank and DNB Carnegie are acting as Joint Lead Managers for the operation.

 

Along with extensive aquaculture and fish processing operations, Lerøy owns Scottish Sea Farms in a half share partnership with SalMar. It also owns one of Norway’s largest white fish trawler fleets and, as such is is viewed as the complete seafood company.

 

Last month, Lerøy reported strong second quarter results in both aquaculture and fishing.

 

It produced revenues of NOK 8,826 million (£649m) against NOK 7,649 million (£562m) over the same period a year ago. The Q2 operating profit was NOK 680 million £50m).

 

The group’s revenues increased 15% year over year, despite a significant year-on-year decline in salmon and trout prices, reflecting increased harvest volume in the farming segment and increasing sales volume in the VAPS&D [Value-Added, Process, Sales & Distribution] segment.