Aker BioMarine reports 17% revenue growth in 2020 amid krill EPA/DHA launch and COVID-19 hurdles

16 Feb 2021 --- Aker BioMarine saw steady growth during 2020, as announced in the year’s Q4 financial results. Revenue growth reached 17 percent for the full year, translating into US$289 million (compared to last year’s US$246 million).

“Even in the face of COVID-19 related challenges in 2020, our business continued as usual. We grew our top line by 17 percent and managed to onboard new customers and enter new markets amidst pervasive travel restrictions,” notes Matts Johansen, CEO of Aker BioMarine.

Launching Lysoveta
Part of the growth is attributed to the launch of Lysoveta – a new delivery platform based on LPC-bound EPA and DHA from krill, which targets the brain and eye segment. 

The company is now collaborating with Université de Sherbrooke Department of Medicine in Canada to investigate if Lysoveta is effective in preventing cognitive decline linked to Alzheimer’s disease. 

“Early research suggests that brain uptake of EPA and DHA is increased by using LPC as a carrier molecule,” Christine Strømhylden Lunder, innovation project lead at Aker BioMarine, tells NutritionInsight.

“EPA and DHA play a vital role in brain health, all the way from early development through our entire lifespan, by being involved in synaptogenesis, neurogenesis and by regulating neuroinflammation. This new study will look at how the uptake of EPA and DHA is affected by the form it is administered in,” Strømhylden Lunder explains.

Christine Strømhylden Lunder, innovation project lead at Aker BioMarine.The study will use different formulations of EPA and DHA to investigate if LPC is a superior source of these fatty acids in populations that are genetically at-risk for Alzheimer’s disease. 

More specifically, the team will evaluate the link between genetic variations in lipid metabolism and transport of EPA and DHA across the blood-brain barrier using knock-in mice for human E4 (hAPOE4) or E3 (hAPOE3) genetic variants. 

Partnering on chess
Over the next four years, Lysoveta will also serve as Official Learning Partner for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, following a new agreement with Play Magnus Group.

The collaboration seeks to discover how Lysoveta could positively impact the chess players’ performance.

“Many of the supplements are addressing short-term performance increase in, for example, attention and alertness, but we see the need to also focus on factors that will have a positive effect on long term brain health,” Strømhylden Lunder says.

2020 financial highlights
According to Aker BioMarine, the highlights of Q4 include:

• Adjusted EBITDA of US$21.1 million (US$8.2 million), with 28 percent (11 percent) adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter.
• Net profit of US$4.2 million (US$17.8 million).
• Adjusted EBITDA growth of 47 percent for the full year was US$78.1 million (US$53 million).

Revenue grew by 17 percent for the full year, translating into a total of US$289 million. In addition, harvesting in the quarter was 2,500 MT. This falls short of the expected range of 6,500-7,500 MT due to krill appearing later than anticipated in area 48. Harvesting picked up to record levels at the beginning of 2021.

Signing pharma partnership with MD3 for development of five pharma-indications within the eye and brain segment also helped growth. 

Lastly, the launch of Aion, a circular solution company, delivering fully traceable circular plastic products, is also supporting Aker BioMarine’s ambition of full circularity of main waste streams. Plan to spin off in 2021/2022.

“I am pleased to see the scalability of Aker BioMarine’s business model coming to life, with a 2020 adjusted EBITDA growth of 47 percent,” Johansen says.

“Despite the challenges and curveballs thrown at us in 2020, Aker BioMarine delivers strong financial numbers for the year, giving me great optimism for a promising and innovation-filled future,” he adds.

By Kristiana Lalou