If all goes to plan, land-based salmon farmer Atlantic Sapphire's listing on the fully regulated Oslo Stock Exchange will bring in a new pool of institutional investors, analysts told IntraFish.

The listing on the main stock exchange, the Oslo Bors, is scheduled to take place May 5. The move away from the smaller, less-regulated Merkur market will provide Atlantic Sapphire's shares with greater liquidity for both its existing shareholders, and give potential investors more confidence in the company's ability to raise money and its ability to trade.

The increased liquidity also opens the company up to funds that currently cannot invest given limitations on which exchanges they are allowed to trade, DNB Seafood Equity Analyst Alexander Aukner told IntraFish.

Valuation impact to be determined

Pareto Securities Equity Analyst Carl-Emil Kjolaas Johannessen told IntraFish the move to the Oslo Bors will make the share "more investable" to institutional funds.

The move may also mean Atlantic Sapphire shares will be included in indexes that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) track, similar to Mowi, SalMar and Bakkafrost, Johannessen noted, which typically has a positive impact on share prices.

In anticipation of this increased interest, investors drove up the company's share price sharply on the Merkur.

On May 4, in anticipation of the move, Atlantic Sapphire's share price was up 17 percent to NOK 114.50 (€10.00/$11.00) per share since April 29.

However, Johannessen said the company might not see an instant uptick in its valuation, which is currently at NOK 8.1 billion (€713 million/$780 million).

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Aukner said that certainly the move won't make valuation lower, "because if more investors can buy shares, the company valuation could witness a positive effect overtime."

Johannessen foresees no particular impact from the overall economic climate either. Monday was another volatile day on global stock exchange.

"They are not raising any new capital, they are just moving shares from one list to another so the economic stability doesn't really matter," Johannessen said.

Shareholding base

Norway-based investment company Alsco is currently the largest shareholder in Atlantic Sapphire, holding 13 percent of all outstanding shares. The investment company is owned by co-founder and chairman Johan Andreassen's family, and the Lovik family.

The second-largest shareholder is the Regents of the University of Michigan, which are constitutional officers of the state of Michigan, with a 6.1 percent stake.

Atlantic Sapphire will offer no new shares with the move to the Oslo Bors.

Whether there will be any changes to the shareholding base is uncertain. If new investors come in, some shareholders would have to sell their shares, Aukner noted.

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Management reshuffle

Atlantic Sapphire announced a series of management and board changes on April 7 in preparation for its upcoming listing, which will also include converting the company into a public limited liability company.

Founder and CEO Johan Andreassen would step down as managing director of the new holding company, replaced by Karl Oystein Oyehaug, who currently serves as finance director of Atlantic Sapphire USA, the company's main operating group.

Andreassen will continue to serve as chairman of the board of the new group, and serve as CEO of Atlantic Sapphire USA.

Tone Bjornov and Ellen Marie Saetre were named to the board, replacing Bjorn-Vegard Lovik and Peter Skou.

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