Image: AquaBounty / FIS

AquaBounty Technologies Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results

UNITED STATES
Wednesday, April 03, 2024, 07:00 (GMT + 9)

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 fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023.

Source: AquaBounty. Clic on the image to enlarge

Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Highlights and Recent Developments

• Generated $553 thousand in product revenue in the fourth quarter, a year-over-year increase of 23% as compared to $451 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2023, product revenue totaled $2.47 million, a year-over-year decrease of 21% as compared to $3.14 million in 2022.
• Net loss in the fourth quarter was up significantly at $8.42 million for 2023 as compared to $6.07 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2023, net loss increased to $27.56 million, as compared to $22.16 million in 2022.
• 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 pursuing new sources of financing to cover the cost increase.
• Cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and restricted cash totaled $9.2 million as of December 31, 2023, as compared to $102.6 million as of December 31, 2022.
• On February 14, 2024, the Company announced that it had made the decision to sell its Indiana farm site as part of its strategy to increase liquidity.

Management Commentary

"Our financial results for 2023 are indicative of the financial and operational challenges that we encountered during the year," stated Sylvia Wulf, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of AquaBounty. "We began the year with a limited ability to harvest at our Indiana farm, as needed repairs were performed on our processing building. By the time 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 percent. Our net loss for 2023 increased over the prior year, primarily due to sharp increases in spending for state excise taxes, legal fees, and outside consulting, the latter two driven by our fundraising efforts. 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.

Source: Stockfile FIS. 

"Faced with these challenges, we began exploring a range of financing alternatives to strengthen our balance sheet and increase our cash runway. We announced in February 2024 that we had made the decision to sell our Indiana farm operation in order to increase our cash position and to decrease our on-going cash burn. 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.

"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. Furthermore, our R&D team continues to make advances in genetics, breeding, fish health and nutrition. We have a fully engaged and committed management team that is focused on dealing with our challenges and taking the necessary steps to support our future growth.

"I look forward to providing my fellow stockholders with an update in the near future," concluded Wulf.

Source: AquaBounty

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