NEW YORK, July 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diamond Equity Research, a leading equity research firm with a focus on small capitalization public companies has initiated coverage of Blue Star Foods Corp. (OTC:BSFC). The in-depth 23-page initiation report includes detailed information on the Blue Star Foods’s business model, services, industry, valuation, management, and risks.
The full research report is available here. Highlights from the report include:
Large Market Opportunity
- Blue Star Foods Corp. (BSFC) offers investors the opportunity to invest in a successful international seafood business, with significant growth potential with its recent expansion of its focus to the highly disruptive and high growth recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) market. BSFC is targeting the growing demand for high quality seafood products worldwide, while focusing on responsible and environmentally sustainable practices. Sustainability is a huge part of Blue Star’s business model and a key point of differentiation from other seafood companies with the Chairman also functioning as Chief Sustainability Officer, implementing sustainability across the whole company’s operations. With ESG focused investing becoming the standard, we think BSFC is likely to receive more meaningful investor attention. Additionally, the upcoming anticipated (Q3 2021) listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange should further improve corporate visibility among the investment community. We believe Blue Star Foods can achieve strong revenue growth over the long term, further bolstered by its acquisition of Taste of BC Aquafarms, a RAS salmon farming operation in British Columbia, Canada. Taste of BC Aquafarms are pioneers in the RAS industry, with the longest running full grow-out salmon farm in North America. BSFC is targeting to increase RAS salmon capacity to 21,000 MT by 2028 (versus just 100 MT currently). A 1,500 MT facility translates to an annual revenue of ~$12.3 million and net profit of $5.5 million according to the company, indicating significant operating leverage.
Expanding within the RAS market with the rapid growth of Taste of BC Aquafarms
- Blue Star’s land-based RAS salmon farming technology brings proven operators to targeting a large and attractive addressable market. We believe that RAS is the future of the industry, as it offers a potentially more viable, safe, and sustainable alternative to conventional aquaculture, as well as wild fish stocks. The land-based RAS system used by Taste of BC allows them to produce fish with minimum environmental impact. There is no use of antibiotics or pesticides, as well no harmful byproducts disposed in the surroundings. Additionally, the system is modular and predictable, enabling its scalability.
Valuation
- Valuation models indicates upside potential. Seafood product demand is expanding rapidly driven by a rapidly growing population. BSFC offers investors a unique combination, unlike many of its competitors, of both an ESG integrated model in an existing seafood products business, as well as exposure to the high growth RAS market. It is challenging to value BSFC given its RAS business is in early stage and given the lack of any directly comparable public companies. We used a blended discounted cash flow analysis and peer comparable valuation analysis, with a mix of similar seafood and aquaculture companies. Our combined valuation analysis indicates a fair value for Blue Star’s shares of $10.00 per share, contingent on successful execution by the company.
About Blue Star Foods Corp.
Blue Star Foods Corp is an integrated ESG seafood company that processes, packages and sells refrigerated pasteurized Blue Crab meat, and other high-value seafood products. It has also entered and its targeting expansion in the RAS salmon farming industry, with its recent acquisition of Taste of BC Aquafarms. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.
For more information, visit https://www.bluestarfoods.com.
About Diamond Equity Research
Diamond Equity Research is a leading equity research and corporate access firm focused on small capitalization companies. Diamond Equity Research is an approved sell-side provider on major institutional investor platforms including Factset, Morningstar, and Thomson One.
For more information, visit https://www.diamondequityresearch.com.
Disclosures:
Please refer to the initiation report for full disclosures. Diamond Equity Research LLC is being compensated by Blue Star Foods Corp for producing research materials regarding Blue Star Foods Corp. and its securities, which is meant to subsidize the high cost of creating the report and monitoring the security, however the views in the report reflect that of Diamond Equity Research. All payments are received upfront and are billed for research engagement. As of 07/19/2021 the issuer had paid us $35,000 for our services, which commenced 07/02/2021 and is billed annually. Diamond Equity Research LLC may be compensated for non-research related services, including presenting at Diamond Equity Research investment conferences, press releases and other additional services. The non-research related service cost is dependent on the company, but usually do not exceed $5,000. The issuer has not paid us for non-research related services as of 07/19/2021. Issuers are not required to engage us for these additional services. Additional fees may have accrued since then. Although Diamond Equity Research company sponsored reports are based on publicly available information and although no investment recommendations are made within our company sponsored research reports, given the small capitalization nature of the companies we cover we have adopted an internal trading procedure around the public companies by whom we are engaged, with investors able to find such policy on our website public disclosures page. This report and press release do not consider individual circumstances and does not take into consideration individual investor preferences. Statements within this report may constitute forward-looking statements, these statements involve many risk factors and general uncertainties around the business, industry, and macroeconomic environment. Investors need to be aware of the high degree of risk in small capitalization equities including the complete loss of their investment. Investors can find various risk factors in the initiation report and in the 10K filings for Blue Star Foods Corp.
Contact:
Diamond Equity Research
research@diamondequityresearch.com