The biotechnology company Aker BioMarine continues to focus on its core business, krill harvesting and processing, and is de-emphasizing activities associated with concentrated fish oils.Aker BioMarine has strategically targeted Antarctic krill and the processing of krill into high-value, bioactive end-products for human health and wellness markets and niche products for the aquaculture industry.
Continued streamlining of Aker BioMarine’s operations will impact the company’s Center for Lipid Technology, located at Hovdebygda in Sunnmøre, and Aker BioMarine’s cooperation with GC Rieber Oils AS in the O3C Nutraceuticals joint venture.
“The Center for Lipid Technology has developed unique expertise, but it is no longer core to focus and concentration of resources we need at Aker BioMarine. Through dialogue with our Hovdebygda employees, we will plan for the Center’s future. Our goal is to find an operational format that enables us to avoid shutting down the facilities,” says Kjell Inge Røkke, Aker BioMarine’s CEO.
The objective is to find a suitable course of action within the next month. One solution would be to spin off the technology center as a stand-alone company under new ownership, possibly with Aker BioMarine as a minority shareholder for a period.
In the future, research and development for Aker BioMarine’s core activities will be run from the company’s Oslo headquarters and will be more closely integrated with the laboratories on board the company’s Life Science Factory vessels.
“We have built a unique biotechnology environment at Hovdebygda since 1996. Under a single roof, 16 employees operate world-class laboratories, pilot facilities, and a production department that develops and scales up manufacturing technologies for fatty acids (lipids),” says Per Christian Sæbø, general manager of the Center for Lipid Technology.
“Several Center managers have discussed assuming ownership collectively or together with other parties. Our technological achievements, expertise, and position make us attractive to other participants in this growing market,” says Mr. Sæbø.
The Center for Lipid Technology is located in Møre and Romsdal county, on the southwest coast of Norway.
