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Cheers charlie! I'm more than a little frustrated by the paucity of information coming from just the RNS feeds. I'm also now more than 99% convinced that Lib Bio will build this facility in Abu Dhabi:

"Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has launched a strategic collaboration with New Agrarian Company Limited to explore the development of a large-scale, multi-tenant protein fermentation centre in Abu Dhabi. Revealed during the Protein Alternative (PALT) platform at Global Food Week, the project reinforces Abu Dhabi’s commitment to building a globally competitive food economy driven by innovation and sustainability."

https://www.mediaoffice.abudhabi/en/economy/abu-dhabi-investment-office-and-new-agrarian-company-to-develop-large-scale-protein-fermentation-centre-in-abu-dhabi/

Their last Linkedin post 6 days ago. Coincidence?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/liberation-bioindustries_biomanufacturing-paltbyagwa-activity-7385014177842712576-RCi1

"Liberation Bioindustries

6,050 followers

6d

We’re headed to Abu Dhabi next week as part of Global Food Week!

Our co-founder and Chief Business Officer Etan Bendheim will be speaking on Wednesday on a panel focused on expanding infrastructure in Abu Dhabi, as part of the PALT conference within GFW.

Etan will be sharing lessons learned from our experiences concepting, siting, designing and now building a commercial scale #biomanufacturing plant. He’ll cover design principles, managing energy, securing customers, and many other critical factors for successful facility development.

PALT is the flagship event of AGWA | AgriFood Growth & Water Abundance cluster – and serves as the region’s most important platform for alternative proteins, novel foods, and sustainable food innovation."

@charliemoonhead, since Anthony Chow left, Shellbay/ANIC haven't been doing a good job of investor relations. There is a lot of news that doesn't make it to an RNS.

@Stop, it's an intriguing development. Before joining Shellbay, Philip Boigner was CEO of a VC firm in Oman and before that a private equity investor at The Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority. He obviously has contacts in the region. Most of the new money ($100m) being raised by New Agrarian is coming from the Middle East, and Lib Bio will be producing whey for Vivici at their Richmond plant and Every is obviously an ANIC portfolio company. Who will be building this 4-million-litre industrial-scale facility? So far, Lib Bio has struck a deal with NEOM to build a facility in Saudi. If the Abu Dhabi investment office provides the capital, would it be too much of a stretch to think they'll also build this one? At the very least, there will potentially be space for other ANIC companies as the plan is to develop a multi-tenanted facility to allow for the future participation of other fermented protein companies,

Https://agfundernews.com/breaking-vivici-and-the-every-co-explore-4m-liter-alt-protein-facility-in-uae

Interview with Solar Foods CEO: https://agfundernews.com/solar-foods-ceo-on-scaling-up-protein-from-thin-air-we-have-mous-and-lois-for-more-than-50-of-new-factory-already

@Apierogon I'm just posting financial data. What exactly are you contributing to the discussion? Insults aren't a contribution.

It's a clever way of dealing with the problem of manufacturing being a capital intensive business in a capital constrained environment. Clean Food Group got around this by buying assets in bankruptcy, Solar Foods have chose to partner/outsource.

"EBIT of 38% is decent enough to see the company continue to grow."

By way of comparison Apple has an EBITDA margin of 32.9%. If Solar Foods hits its EBITDA target it will generate an ROIC of 27% vs a cost of capital of 10%. To compare once again to Apple, those numbers are 31.29% and 9.73% respectively.

Here's what Grok thinks about this recent Solar Foods Factory 02 pivot:

" I see this as a smart pivot toward capital discipline and ecosystem leverage, especially for a deep-tech startup like Solar Foods in the nascent precision fermentation space. It's a classic "do what you do best, outsource the rest" play: By offloading ~70–80% of Factory 02's build/ops to partners, they de-risk a €600M+ long-term program while honing their edge in Solein biology and sales.

solarfoods.com

This isn't just cost-cutting—it's strategic acceleration. Factory 01's recent milestone (full capacity hit in October 2025) proves the tech works at scale, equivalent to 300 dairy cows' output daily without the emissions or land use.

Layering in partners now positions them for explosive growth in a $2T+ protein market, targeting high-margin niches like performance nutrition where Solein's clean label (vegan, allergen-free) shines.Pros:Financial Resilience: Slashes equity ask amid tight VC markets for alt-proteins; opens doors to non-dilutive funding (IPCEI grants could add €100M+).

kauppalehti.fi

EBITDA positivity by 2030 feels achievable if Solein hits €3–4/kg.

Speed and Expertise: Blue Projects brings proven chops in green industrial projects; a partner network could fast-track global replication (e.g., US sites near cheap renewables).

Sustainability Halo: Reinforces Solein's "air protein" narrative—zero ag dependency aligns perfectly with EU/US net-zero pushes, potentially unlocking more subsidies/partnerships.

Cons/Risks:Coordination Challenges: Managing a web of partners risks delays (biotech timelines are brutal—recall Factory 01's ramp-up hiccups). If hydrogen supply partners falter amid energy volatility, costs spike.

Market Timing: Alt-protein hype has cooled (e.g., post-2022 funding winter); Solein needs quick wins in US CPG to justify the 2028 launch. Competition from pea/rice proteins or incumbents like DSM could pressure pricing.

Execution Dependency: Final site/investment decisions in 2025–26 hinge on grants and partner commitments—any EU policy wobble could stall momentum.

Overall, I'm optimistic: This strategy screams maturity, turning Factory 02 from a cash sink into a scalable asset. Solar Foods isn't reinventing the wheel—they're partnering to build a fleet of them. If they nail sales agreements (as targeted for Factory 02 capacity), this could catapult them to unicorn status by 2030, feeding billions sustainably. Watch for partner announcements in Q4 2025; that's the litmus test."

"Solar Foods is building "Factory 02" – its first large-scale facility – using a capital-light strategy. It's bringing in partners to cover roughly 70% of the infrastructure costs, slashing its own required stock and debt to just €100 million from €245 million.

The new plan means future EBITDA margins are estimated to be 38% – healthy, for sure, but well below the nearly 70% it had projected before bringing its strategic partners on board.

Now, what Solar Foods loses in margin, it stands to gain in financial safety and efficiency. This lower-risk approach means a much higher potential return on invested capital, at 27% – well above the firm's 10% cost of capital."

https://finimize.com/content/lighter-on-costs-and-making-food-from-air-why-solar-foods-has-investors-seeing-green

Agreed, but I'd rather have 1% of something than 100% of nothing. In other news Solar Foods has successfully ramped production at Factory 01 to their initial target capacity of 160 tons of Solein: https://solarfoods.com/solar-foods-factory-01-has-reached-its-productivity-targets/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8c9cEYK2DgYbJYtPQe9dwegAJ6WSzoTTjkVLKN3CJac23mWXJQAQjr4sWaVZf73UefAbamdoNIJ8BC2SPr9R77F9O6rcrn9G6V1FiR6Is50zsaUSI&_hsmi=386118584&utm_content=386118584&utm_source=hs_email

I'd pretty much written them off and stopped following developments, so missed the fact they were able to raise $20m in a Series B in August, with reported revenue growth of 75%. Good to know they are still attracting capital and are a going concern: https://www.specialchem.com/cosmetics/news/geltor-secures-funding-to-expand-its-biodesigned-polypeptide-portfolio

Here's the chart with the downward sloping trendline which was broken at the beginning of this year: https://pasteboard.co/5yjZtdtTvJ8E.png

The stock had been in a clear downtrend since hitting an all-time high in May 21. We then made a series of lower lows and lower highs until it hit a final low of 3.67p at the end of January earleir this year. Since then, there have been two higher highs: 8.20p on 28 Feb and 9.20p on 11 July and two higher lows: 5.22p on 4 April and hopefully 6.02p 3 days ago. In so doing we also broke the downwards sloping trendline that was in place from the May 21 high to the Jan 25 low. This for me indicates a clear change in the trend.

We now need to make a higher high than the 9.20p high we saw in July. Is there any reason to expect that this won't happen? I don't think so. The two main obstacles are access to capital and the abililty to scale production and lower costs. New capital may not be coming from Agronomics, but New Agrarian will step in and Lib Bio and Clean Food Group will have scaled operations and be bringing products to market in the next few months.

In my experience, life-changing returns in the stock market don't come without massive drawdowns and a big dose of patience. The market never makes it easy. That's just the price you have to pay. The high in 2021 was at 41.50p, so we've seen a big drawdown and those investors who've stuck with the stock have had to be patient. I now think both those things will be rewarded.

Agreed. I'm glad the porfolio companies will have ready access to new capital in a highly challenging funding environment. I'm not sure how much of a competitive edge this will be for them, but it will surely help. What are the choices for ANIC here? They don't have much cash left on the balance sheet, so won't be participating in new rounds with the share price this far below the NAV. That means the stakes their holdings will get diluted. What's the alternative? Imagine for a moment the share price is above the NAV, they would then be in a position to issue new shares, but that would mean our stake in ANIC would be diluted. Either way there would be some form of dilution, but as long as the return on capital is higher than the cost of that capital, dilution is a good thing.

On balance I don't want them to issue new shares with the price this low. The lower the share price, the higher the cost of capital. More importantly, Jim Mellon has mentioned a few times they won't do it with the share price below the NAV, so it would be very damaging to his credibility if they were to do that. All that to say, I'm glad it's New Agrarian and not ANIC that will making new investments, at least as long as we are trading below fair value.

As I said in my last post, his comment about CFG producing "massive quantities" of sustainably-produced palm oil almost certainly came with knowledge of the acquisition of Algal Omega 3 assets. So I'm assuming his comment that Blue Nalu "is predicted to benefit from significant revenue in the next 12 months" was also made with some specific insider knowledge. I doubt this would just be baseless speculation on his part. Let's see, but I think before the end of the year, we are going to hear something from them. Regulatory approval? Start of production at their pilot facility or possibly news that their new 140,000 square foot plant is near completion?

Jim Mellon probably knew about the Clean Food Group acquisition when he made this recent comment. Producing massive quantities of sustainably-produced palm oil in 2026 is going to mean a big jump in revenue. I wonder whether CFG will also be profitable? The capex they spent to buy the plant will be expensed as depreciation over its useful life and shouldn't be too high given it was bought out of administration, and waste bread and wine yeast aren't exactly expensive, so COGS will be low, and I don't think they've raised debt, so no interest expense, which leaves the salaries of employees. If not in 26, I think it will definitely be profitable in 27:

"Which three start-ups funded by Agronomics this year excite you the most - and why?

There are a handful of incredible developments happening in the Agronomics portfolio.

The ones I'm most excited about include:

Liberation Bioindustries is in the process of completing an exciting and industry-defining facility that will focus on producing novel proteins.

Clean Food Group, are going to be producing sustainably-produced palm oil in massive quantities by 2026, the environmental benefit of this will be unparalleled.

Finally, Blue Nalu, our cultivated bluefin tuna startup, is predicted to benefit from significant revenue in the next 12 months."

Hopefully this should mean more capital is available to ANIC companies:

"New Agrarian is in the process of raising $100 million from new LPs, Mellon told NPM, which it expects to deploy over an 18-month period"

https://www.newprivatemarkets.com/a-billionaires-perspective-on-foodtech-investment/

I added to my position for the first time in months, but at 6.36p. Did it drop as low as 5.5? I'm seeing the low of the day at 6.20.

Thanks for doing the homework here Stop. Clean Food Group has raised £13m in funding to date, so given they paid cash and the assets were bought out of administration, I agree with you that they probably paid pennies on the dollar. For me, this is the most significant development for ANIC since Lib Bio closed their funding round. They now have regulatory approval for CLEAN Oil™ 25 in the UK, Europe and the US and a ready-to-go plant that will allow them to manufacture at scale. That means they should be generating revenue by H2 26. As far as I'm aware no other company in the alt fats and oil space has advanced this far, and neither have any of ANIC's other investments. Lib Bio is the only company in the portfolio that will also be generating revenue next year, and they are higher up in the value chain, so that's to be expected.

It's disappointing that the share price hasn't reacted positively, but I'd rather see progress at our porfolio companies with no movement in the share price, than a rising share price with no accompanying progress in the fundamentals. At some point the share price is going to reflect what is happening with each of our businesses.

I thought Agronomics owned a 30.59% stake in Clean Food Group, but using your 27% number and the most recent CFG press release evaluating that stake at £6.9 million, would give CFG a valuation of £25.5 million. This is what Alex Neves, the CEO had to say about the acquistion on linkedin:

"This is a truly transformational moment for Clean Food Group.

If you ask any founder in food tech or biotech what the biggest challenge is, the answer is always the same: access to scale-up and commercial fermentation infrastructure.

Traditionally, that path either means working with CMOs that can mean losing an element of control (and can be quite costly) or building in-house moving from lab to demo plant to new-build facility - an approach that can take years and easily cost upwards of $100m.

With this acquisition, we’ve unlocked that critical bottleneck. Not only have we secured 1,000,000L of fermentation capacity, but we’ve done it in a way that is faster, significantly less costly, and validates our retrofit model for scaling biomanufacturing."

Even if his $100m estimate is too high, it's clear that CFG have just acquired an asset that's worth a multiple of what the company's valuation was when the NAV was last calculated. The potential to really boost the share price will come from a change in the valuation of those companies where we have a concentrated stake: Liberation Bio, Meatly and Clean Food Group. Yesterday's press release talked about a $20b opportunity for CFG. I want to see them disrupt this market and see the value of our bigger stakes compound over a long period and will be really disappointed if ANIC decides to cash out within the next two years.