I never thought he'd call

Now they will be listed together, at a company price of NOK 100 million.

SANDNES (Nettavisen Økonomi): The captain of the American fishing boat is known in both Norway and the USA as a prominent character in the documentary Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. Sigurd “Sig” Johnny Hansen is often asked to take part in various entrepreneurial projects, but he usually says no.

But businessman Helge Tretto Olsen could not let him pass when Hansen signed the autographs in Stavanger. captains It had to Just hear the idea that Hansen’s crab and crab pots can be saved.

– He took my card and left feeling like I tried at least. Olsen says I never imagined he would call me after three weeks.

If we fast forward a few years, to November 26, 2021, the duo will be ready to ring the bell and list marine technology company Resqunit on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Sweden.

– I was skeptical

The presence of Sig Hansen and the deadliest hunting team in Norway in recent weeks was one bad hidden secret. The king crab fishery in Alaska has been closed for the first time in decades, and for the first time it has been recorded in Norway.

Hansen tells Nettavisen that he never envisioned investing in the entrepreneur’s idea when Olsen first called the signature queue.

– I was skeptical. Usually we hunters are suspicious of anything new. But I eventually reached out and wanted to know more about the idea. Hansen probably remembers that I initially pointed out some things I thought wouldn’t work.

When Olsen hit the strings a few months later and said he had solved the problems Hansen had pointed out, the crab captain was sold:

Holy Molly, I thought. This guy means business. I don’t want my name to be associated with something I don’t believe in. But I really think this technology could be successful, says Hansen.

This is resconite

It was founded in 2017 by Helge Trettø Olsen, Per Waagen and Dag Frode Aasnes.
The marine technology company develops solutions to neutralize and recover lost fishing gear. When a pot remains at sea for a long time, the fish and shellfish are released through a locking mechanism – before turning on the floating unit so that the pot can be pulled from the sea floor.
In addition to Resqunit, the group consists of Swedish holding company Resqunit AB and subsidiaries Resqunit Canada Inc. (90 percent ownership) and Global Ocean Data (67 percent ownership). In total, the organization has ten employees – and the company plans to double the number of employees in one year.
Resqunit technology also collects data from the sea floor, and the company is in dialogue with the Marine Research Institute and the Seafood Innovation Group about how the data is being used.
The company is priced at NOK 100 million prior to its debut on the Nasdaq’s first northern growth market.

At the beginning of the collaboration, the TV star entered into an ownership agreement with the founders of Resqunit to get ten percent of the sales volume. Now, however, the agreement has been changed.

– I will not hide that it was a burden for the company to lose part of its small sales. Sig realized this, too, and tore up the property contract. Instead, he took stock in the company, and has since bought himself into becoming the second-largest owner, says Olsen.

You will solve a huge problem

Ghost hunting and scattering of plastic waste is a major problem for both fishermen and the environment. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature Up to one million tons of fishing gear is lost annually.

Resqunit technology is a locking mechanism for crab and lobster pots. When a vessel has been lying in the sea for a long time, the escape hatch for the oysters is opened and the floating unit is operated so that it becomes possible to withdraw the vessel from the sea floor.

The idea itself is not new. We’ve been able to trace the product back to the 1970s through old patent applications. The reason for our success is timing. The financial stimulus by itself isn’t enough, but we now live in a time when many people are thinking about pollution and ghost hunting and want to help fight it, says company founder Olsen.

The captain of the fishing boat, Sage Hansen, says he was annoyed himself with the loss of pots of up to 15,000 kronor.

– We’ve lost count of pots I’ve lost over the years. Hansen says more and more fishermen are thinking about sustainability now, so I think the technology will work.

On Friday, Resqunit will be rolled out to the public in Sweden via direct listing. This means that the company makes the shares only available for purchase and sale, without printing more shares. The company was priced at NOK 100 million after the stock issue this fall, after which there was no immediate need for capital, according to CEO Olsen.

Why go to the NASDAQ number one Nordic growth market, and not the Euronext growth market?

– We first looked at Euronext Growth and our goal was to bring it to the public there. But one of our investors in eastern Norway argued early in the process that the Nasdaq represented a larger market. We arranged a meeting with them, and were impressed with the way they greeted us and the opportunities we envisioned there. We simply felt more welcome and saw that the potential for further internationalization on the Nasdaq was greater.