By: Jacob Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jacob@thevillagereporter.com
AquaBounty released its second quarter 2024 financial results on August 6th. The report highlighted financial losses the company recently experienced, while also highlighting a few plans for the future.
“AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQB) (“AquaBounty” or the “Company”), a land-based aquaculture company utilizing technology to enhance productivity and sustainability, today announced the company’s financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2024.”
“Second Quarter 2024 Highlights and Recent Developments Net loss in the second quarter of 2024 was up significantly at $50.5 million as compared to $6.5 million in the second quarter of 2023.
The current period loss included a non-cash impairment charge of $44.5 million against the long-lived assets of the Indiana farm and certain equipment from the Ohio farm, which have been sold or made available for sale.”
“Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash totaled $0.7 million as of June 30, 2024, as compared to $9.2 million as of December 31, 2023.”
“On April 18, 2024, the company executed a bridge loan agreement for $10.0 million, secured by the assets of its Indiana and Ohio farms. The company utilized $6.5 million from the facility, which was repaid on July 26, 2024.”
“The sale of the Indiana farm, which included certain equipment from the Ohio farm, was completed on July 26, 2024 for $9.2 million, net of expenses.”
“On June 7, 2024, David F. Melbourne Jr. was promoted to Chief Executive Officer, in conjunction with the Company’s succession plan. Sylvia Wulf continues as the non-executive Chair of AquaBounty’s Board of Directors.”
Management Commentary
“Our focus during the second quarter was securing a buyer for the Indiana farm and continuing to explore a variety of financing initiatives to maintain liquidity,” said Dave Melbourne, AquaBounty’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
“With the sale of the Indiana farm now complete, we will continue to work with our investment banking partner to extend our cash runway, including the sale of additional equipment assets from our Ohio farm.”
“While our net loss in the second quarter was up significantly, driven in large part by the non-cash impairment charge taken against our farm assets, the team continues to identify opportunities to preserve cash and reduce operating expenses.”
“We completed a sale of conventional Atlantic salmon eggs from our Prince Edward Island (“PEI”) operations’ winter spawn to a large net-pen salmon farmer at the beginning of the quarter.”
“In addition, we have secured a large follow-up order from the same customer for additional conventional eggs from our summer spawn.”
“Our Research and Development team made further progress in PEI on our breeding, fish health and nutrition, and gene editing initiatives.”
“This work supports important advances that will be valuable for the future of our business, supporting both traditional net-pen and land-based farming operations,” continued Melbourne.”
Further on in the statement, examples are given as to what could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by “such forward-looking statements”.
“One of these items pertains to “our ability to raise additional funds in sufficient amounts on a timely basis, on acceptable terms, or at all; including our ability to sell additional equipment from the Ohio farm to generate liquidity to fund ongoing operations.”
“Another such line also states, “our ability to finance our Ohio farm through the placement of municipal bond.”
Since the news was released, AquaBounty’s stock has taken a sharp decline and stood at $1.39 at the time of writing.
A request for comment was sent to AquaBounty’s media contact organization Fahlgren Mortine. The request for comment revolved around the selling of equipment at the Ohio farm and also asked about the company’s future plans with the site. No response has been received as of this writing.