AquaBounty Technologies Inc. experienced a US$8.42 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2023. This is up compared to $6.07 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the year that ended Dec. 31, 2023, the net loss increased to $27.56 million compared to $22.16 million in 2022.
“Our financial results for 2023 are indicative of the financial and operational challenges that we encountered during the year,” said Sylvia Wulf, board chair and chief executive officer of AquaBounty.
Wulf said the company had limited ability to harvest at its Indiana farm due to the repairs on the processing building. By the facility was fully back in operation in early May, the market price for Atlantic salmon had begun to fall.
“This continued through the second and third quarters and only partially recovered during the holiday season in the fourth quarter. The result was a decline in year-over-year revenue, even though our total production output increased by 14 per cent,” said Wulf. “We also were impacted by another significant increase in the cost estimate for our Ohio farm, which forced us to pause both our construction activities and our municipal bond financing transaction in June.”
Construction activities for the Pioneer, Ohio farm site were paused in June, due to a significant increase in the expected construction cost. The company is now pursuing new sources of financing to cover the cost increase.
Cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and restricted cash totalled $9.2 million as of Dec. 31, 2023, compared to $102.6 million from the previous year.
The company also announced on Feb. 14 that it has made the decision to sell its Indiana farm site as part of its strategy to increase liquidity.
“Additionally, we engaged Berenson & Company as our investment bank to advise on debt financing secured by our unencumbered assets and on additional funding alternatives that are necessary to resume and complete construction of our Ohio farm and pursue our longer-term growth strategy,” Wulf said. “Operations at our PEI farm continue to expand with the installation of additional egg incubation capacity, which will allow us to increase the availability of non-transgenic Atlantic salmon eggs and fry for sale to salmon farmers,” Wulf added.
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