Arctic Bioscience – Entering micro algae space
Arctic Bioscience, a biotech company developing and commercializing pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products, today announces the acquisition of Arctic Algae AS, a biotechnology company specializing in production of micro algae by innovative reactor technologies.
«We are very happy to include the highly skilled employees of Arctic Algae to our team. All our product development is based on unique competence on bioactive marine compounds, and combining Arctic Algae’s competence within bioreactor technology, represents a major opportunity for Arctic Bioscience in continuing designing and extracting marine membrane lipids for application in our products», says CEO Christer Valderhaug in Arctic Bioscience.
The acquisition is based on an enterprise value of NOK 16,3 million, including a net cash position of NOK 5,5 million. The transaction will be fully paid by issuing shares in ABS to Ronja Capital II AS at an ABS share price of minimum NOK 17,27 per share.
In addition to its pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products, Arctic Bioscience is developing a pipeline of products within inflammatory indications. All based on the Company’s technology platform in marine membrane lipids. In addition to current use of marine ingredients, Arctic Bioscience aims to enhance its product- and technology platform by developing proprietary and scalable ingredients based on marine micro algae.
“Through its innovative work, Arctic Algae has developed new production methods for micro algae. The technology is fully scalable and will be the foundation for Arctic Bioscience to expand its product portfolio into marine algal oils, products that have a high growth rate in the nutraceutical marketplace. We will continue this development and strengthen our IP position significantly covering claims comprising both composition of matter and methods of use”, says Valderhaug.
Arctic Algae is located in Larsnes, Norway with abundant access to fresh and clean water from the North Atlantic Ocean with deepwater intake. The company has all the infrastructure needed for both heterotrophic and phototrophic production of micro algae, which is the basis for valuable marine oils, proteins, and other promising ingredients.
“Micro algae is truly an exciting area in the field of bioscience, where major milestones have been made over the past few years. By choosing specific algae strains and producing them under certain conditions, unique marine ingredients could be created. This could then form as a basis for both nutra and pharma products. Arctic Algae’s innovative production process combined with Arctic Bioscience’s extraction technology and market acess is a perfect mach”, says Chairman in Arctic Algae, Tore Tønseth.
Arctic Algae is owned by Ronja Capital II AS, a major shareholder in Arctic Bioscience. The agreement is in accordance with prevailing legislations for related party transactions. A third party fairness opinion has been conducted by Converto AS.
