SalMar delivers good results in the first quarter 2021 and secures green funding for further sustainable growth
Highlights in the first quarter:
- Good results due to continued solid operational performance and increasing salmon prices
- Operational EBIT totalled NOK 627 million and NOK 17.02 per kg
- Fish Farming Central Norway and Fish Farming Northern Norway with stable development and good result
- Sales and Industry delivers a strong result, driven by a strong operational performance, good capacity utilisation and positive contributions from fixed-price contracts
- Icelandic Salmon with positive results and lower costs compared to previous quarters
- SalMar still expects to harvest 163,000 tonnes in Norway and 14,000 tonnes in Iceland in 2021
- At the start of 2021, the company secured NOK 7.5 billion in green financing, which will be used to finance continued sustainable growth
Rising salmon prices and continued strong operational performance gave good first quarter results
SalMar posted an Operational EBIT of NOK 627 million in the first quarter 2021, a rise of 48 per cent on the quarter before. The company harvested a total of 36,900 tonnes of salmon in the quarter, which gave an Operational EBIT per kg of NOK 17.02.
“Towards the end of the first quarter, the price of salmon rose steadily compared with the levels seen in the autumn of 2020 and at the start of this year. Together with a strong operational performance from our employers along the entire value chain, this enabled SalMar to announce yet another good result, with margins up on the previous quarter,” says SalMar’s CEO Gustav Witzøe.
The segments Fish Farming Central Norway and Fish Farming Northern Norway continue the stable positive trend, and posted an Operational EBIT of NOK 386 million and NOK 195 million, respectively. Fish transferred to sea farms in the autumn of 2019 accounted for 70 per cent of the volume harvested by Fish Farming Central Norway, and 100 per cent of the volume harvested by Fish Farming Northern Norway during the period. In the second quarter, Fish Farming Northern Norway expects costs at harvest to be slightly lower than in the first quarter, while Fish Farming Central Norway expects costs to remain at the same level. Both segments expect to harvest the same volume in the second quarter as in the first.
The Sales and Industry segment delivers a strong result, driven by good capacity utilisation, a strong operational performance and positive contributions from fixed-price contracts. The segment’s Operational EBIT came to NOK 118 million in the first quarter.
Icelandic Salmon posted an Operational EBIT of NOK 4 million, on the back of improved operational and biological performance and higher salmon prices than in previous quarters.
SalMar still expects to harvest 163,000 tonnes in Norway and 14,000 tonnes in Iceland in 2021 as a whole.
Green financing for further sustainable growth
So far this year, SalMar has secured NOK 7.5 billion in green financing through a NOK 4 billion sustainability-linked credit facility and the successful placement of an unsecured, senior green bond loan amounting to NOK 3.5 billion.
In April, the company was awarded a long-term initial corporate credit rating of A- with a stable outlook by Nordic Credit Rating, and a Medium Green classification from Cicero, the world’s leading provider of second opinions on green financing.
“The new credit facilities strengthen our financial capacity and flexibility, and give us the chance to exploit strategic opportunities for further sustainable growth,” says CFO & COO Trine Sæther Romuld.
Optimistic outlook
After a year of pandemic and a market characterised by global uncertainty, the roll-out of mass vaccination programmes in large parts of the world has helped to make the outlook brighter for the salmon industry. The price of salmon has now returned to the pre-pandemic level.
“We have always had unwavering confidence in the salmon farming industry and continue to invest in new smolt facilities and processing plants, as well as costal and offshore farming. SalMar is well placed to continue growing sustainably, not for growth’s sake alone, but because salmon is a sustainable marine protein which is needed by Norway and the rest of the world. SalMar has been producing farmed salmon for 30 years, and intends to carry on doing so indefinitely. Food will never go out of fashion,” says SalMar’s CEO Gustav Witzøe.
The complete report and presentation for the first quarter 2021 is attached.
SalMar’s CEO Gustav Witzøe and CFO & COO Trine S. Romuld will begin presenting the company’s results at 8am via a webcast on www.salmar.no (http://www.salmar.no).
For further information, please contact:
CEO Gustav Witzøe
Tel: +47 911 47 834
Email: gustav.witzoe@salmar.no
CFO & COO Trine Sæther Romuld
Tel: + 47 991 63 632
Email: trine.romuld@salmar.no
About SalMar
SalMar is one of the world’s largest and most efficient producers of farmed salmon. The Group has farming operations in Central Norway, Northern Norway and Iceland, as well as substantial harvesting and secondary processing operations in Norway, at InnovaMar in Frøya and Vikenco in Aukra. SalMar also owns 50 per cent of the shares in Scottish Sea Farms Ltd.
See www.salmar.no (http://www.salmar.no). for more information about the company.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements stipulated in section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
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