Former top seafood analyst Kolbjorn Giskeodegard has left his role at European land-based salmon project Columbi Salmon and returned to work at Nordea Bank.
Giskeodegard started his new role in January, which involves assisting large companies with capital raising, initial public offerings (IPOs) and acquisitions, among other things.
“I was asked by Nordea if I could imagine a role as responsible for seafood within corporate finance,” Giskeodegard told IntraFish sister publication DN. “It was tempting, and I get to use my network both within seafood and the capital markets in a good way, which I want to enjoy.”
Giskeodegard has a large network after working in the industry for more than 25 years.
For several years, Giskeodegard was one of Norway's most high-profile share analysts in the seafood industry.
In the summer of 2020, he left Nordea to become founder and CFO of the start-up land-based salmon farming company, Columbi Salmon.
Together with his former boss from Nordea, Anders Hagen, and salmon farmer Ivar Refsnes from Trondelag, they planned to start salmon farming on land near Ostend in Belgium.
So far, the company has not received final permits to build the plant in Belgium and is working in parallel to start vegetable production in Trondelag.
His decision to move back to Nordea less than four years later does not mean Giskeodegard has lost faith in land-based salmon farming, however.
“Absolutely not, and the macro conditions look, if possible, even better now than before,” he told DN.
“Salmon prices are at a level we thought was unthinkable just a few years ago. In addition, we have seen that distributing food can be challenging, and that it is not a disadvantage to have local production.”
So far, only a marginal share of the world's farmed salmon is produced on land, but Giskeodegard expects this to grow in time.
“We see that there are several companies with promising operations, and there is reason to believe that more will crack the code,” he said.
Awaiting permissions
Columbi Salmon Managing Director Anders Hagen said that the company is sorry that Giskeodegard is returning to Nordea.
"Kolbjorn has been an important part of the development of Columbi, and his ideas live on with us,” he said.
Aside from the plans to farm salmon in Belgium, Columbi has entered into agreement with SalMar to use wastewater from its new hatchery outside Steinkjer in Trondelag for the production of vegetables.
The aim is to start construction of this facility during the year.
Meanwhile, the company is waiting for all appeals for the production permits in Belgium to expire.
“Environmentalists appealed against our permits, but the appeal was rejected,” said Hagen.
However, then there was another opportunity for them to appeal again.
"The response to this final appeal may come at any time in the next 18 months. When it is in place, we will recapitalize the company and start construction,” he said.
Columbi already has agreements with various suppliers for the construction of the plant, which will have an annual production capacity of up to 15,000 metric tons of salmon.
In parallel with this, the company is looking at several other areas in Europe where it may be relevant to build land-based salmon facilities, according to Hagen.
The Refsnes family from Trondelag is the largest owner of Columbi Salmon with around 50 percent, while Gustav Witzoe, Johan H. Andresen (Ferd) and the management are among the other owners.
Giskeodegard also has a small shareholding, according to the shareholder register at Proff.no.
