Austevoll Seafood ASA

OSE:AUSS

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q1

[Arne Møgster, executive]

Okay. Then I would like to welcome you all to Austevoll Seafood first quarter presentation. I will start the presentation of taking you through the highlights of the company in the first quarter. Thereafter, I will take you through the different segments more in detail. Britt Kathrine Drivenes will go more in details through the numbers. And then I will end the presentation by giving our view on the different markets we are operating in.

Starting up, we have had a record high quarter -- first quarter -- this quarter. And I would say, we have performed better in all segments, except our Peruvian activity, which I will come back to later on. If you look at our operating revenue, it's surprising NOK 8 billion. And operational EBITDA up with NOK 150 million from same quarter last year to just above NOK 1.6 billion. And an operational EBIT of NOK 1.250 billion, which is up NOK 120 million compared with the same quarter last year. Also, net profit is up with NOK 170 million to NOK 1.223 billion.

Starting up -- looking at our total assets, you can see it's increased versus the year-end, and it's mainly due to an increased working capital, currency change and also biomass adjustment is higher this year compared with the same period last year, so NOK 50 billion. Net interest-bearing debt, NOK 5.5 billion. And also an equity ratio of approximately 59%, reflecting strong balance. And this is also something we are focusing in on our subsidiaries in order to overcome a challenging period.

If we take into account 50% share of our result in Pelagia, you can also see is a record high result, had a good contribution from Pelagia. And the total EBITDA of the quarter is just north of NOK 1.8 billion, up NOK 250 million, where the salmon activity is up at NOK 130 million and pelagic activity is up at NOK 120 million. I would say summing up, Pelagia is delivering NOK 100 million better on the 50% this year. Br. Birkeland, in particular on the salmon activity is NOK 70 million better. FoodCorp, NOK 40 million better. And Peru and Austral is approximately NOK 80 million lower this quarter compared with same quarter last year as a result of a weaker fishing both in fourth quarter last year and first quarter this year.

It is a special situation, in particular in Peru this year. We have had hot water close to the coast, which has done, I would say, the research -- has made a research challenging for fish. And we are expecting a lower volume, both for our own fishing vessels but also purchased raw material in Peru this year versus last year. We are expecting this year that all in all, we will be just sort of 350,000 tonnes on our license, approximately 1.7 million tonnes of raw material to our pelagic factories. When it comes to the whitefish segment, we are expecting to be somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 tonnes of raw material, both for our fishing vessels and also for our land-based activity and expecting to surpass 200,000 tonnes, including Lerøy's volume, the subsidiaries, Scottish Sea Farms and also Br. Birkeland Farming.

I take you through segment by segment. You can see that in particular, in Austral, as I said, has had a challenging period since we last reported our fourth quarter numbers. The research in order to determine the quota for first season started up in late February. And as you can see on these 3 pictures, which reflecting the temperatures in the beginning of March, beginning of April and the beginning of May, you can see that it has been an interest of -- entrance of warm water close to the coast of Peru, which has led into, I would say, failure in setting the quota due to that the fish is going deeper or is closer to the coast. We expect this to be short term in March, but it even became worse in April, where they committed a new research and decided not to put the quota.

And what we are seeing now in May is that colder waters has pressured the warm water more north and there is a new research estimated to be finished by the end of May, which may be the foundation for a quota, which will be put for fishing for June and July. What we have seen is that so far, there is no quota. Last year, the quota was 2.8 million tonnes. And for sure, we don't believe that the quota for second quarter or set of June will be not nearly near these numbers. If we put a quota even on fishery mainly in June and July, and our best guess is that if they set a quota will reflect the fishing period on the biomass, which could be between 1 million and 1.5 million tonnes, which is considerably lower than the same season last year.

Also, in the south [indiscernible], it's been -- the fishery has been affected by warm waters. And as you can see, approximately 20,000 tonne less fishing there. If you look at the direct human consumption that catches for mackerel and horse-mackerel, they are thriving in more warm waters. And I would say that the fishery there has been normal, and we have received the same volumes this quarter as we did last quarter.

Looking into Chile. I would say Chile is continuing the good development. The global quota increased by 20% versus 15% the last 3 years. And also Chile got a higher share of the total quota. So in our case, our own quota was increasing to 56,000 tonnes, by 23%, 24% in 2023 versus 2022. Catches has been good. We have, in the quarter, caught approximately 44,000 tonnes by now, we are finished with our own quota of the 56,000 tonnes. In the same period, there has been catches from the artisanal fleet, coastal fleet, which has also been contributing quite well with the fishmeal and -- with high fish oil yield in the period to our fishmeal activity.

Looking at the North Atlantic pelagic quota, worth mentioning that blue whiting quota was put on a considerably higher level this year and versus the same year -- versus 2022. And this is the main raw material base for fishmeal and fish oil activity in Pelagia. And I would say that the season has been more or less finished and has been our successful season also for the pelagic factories. Fishing for human consumption, a bit down compared with same period last year, but we are expecting more or less to have the same volumes. So summing up, approximately 100,000 tonnes more, mainly driven by blue whiting in the quarter. And if the quota for Peru will be put on a low level, it might affect prices for fishmeal and fish oil, which will benefit Pelagia activity.

On the human consumption, volume more or less the same, mainly received herring and mackerel and some capelin in the quarter. Next quarter, we expect to be a seasonable low production quarter mainly by production of herring. And I would say they are performing in terms of volume and result on the same level as they did last year. So summing up, revenue of NOK 3 billion, EBITDA of NOK 386 million, majority is from the fishmeal and fish oil activity, both based on trimmings from pelagic, salmon and whitefish and also some whole pelagic fish. EBIT of NOK 289 million. And as you can see, considerably higher performance or better start of the year versus same quarter last year.

When it comes to the salmon white fish, I would say, operational EBIT of just below NOK 1 billion. It's a bit mixed performance, and our price achievement has been marked by slaughtering period, which we're -- I would say, mainly in the beginning of the quarter versus the last quarter and also on quality issue, in particular in mid Norway -- in south of Norway and also Lerøy Aurora. I would say Lerøy Havfisk and Lerøy Norway Seafood on the whitefish segment are delivering also this quarter, a very good quarter, on the same level as they did last year, which is quite good considering that the cod volume is down by approximately 2,000 tonnes, which has been compensated with more saithe.

Slaughtered volume, I would say, over 50% of the volume is coming from Lerøy Sjøtroll, which is the highest cost base region and approximately 9,000 tonnes is from Lerøy Midt and also 5,000 tonnes is from Lerøy Aurora. EBIT per kilo is up for approximately NOK 6 versus same quarter last year, and it varies a lot from region to region, NOK 24 EBIT per kilo in Lerøy Aurora, NOK 37 in Lerøy Midt and approximately NOK 20 in Lerøy Sjøtroll. Contract share, 18%. And net interest bearing up of NOK 4.3 billion. To have a more detailed walk-through, I suggest you go in to look at the webcast of Lerøy to look at their performance. Maintaining the same slaughtered volumes, [ 175,000 tonnes ] in Norway. And as you can see, Lerøy Aurora is expecting to delivering far higher volume this year. And I would say this region now is having a very good biological performance and a low mortality at time being.

Lerøy Midt, Lerøy Sjøtroll has -- have a setback from a challenging period, second half last year. I would say, in Lerøy Midt, better performance now, and we are a bit behind on Lerøy Sjøtroll still. Scotland, 18,500 tonnes of our 15% share, bringing us up on a total volume of 193,000 tonnes.

When it comes to the resource tax proposal, it's -- is expected to have a final voting in the Norwegian Parliament of Storting before summer. We are not 100% aware of how it will end. The last proposal is that we will have an additional tax on the sea phase of 35%, above the 22% taxes we already have. And of course, the efficient tax rate will depend on the share of the profit and also the investment in the sea phase. I think it's fair to say that anyway, I think the resource tax will operate -- now will reduce our operating cash flow and it will have impact on how we are actually investing in this industry going forward. And that's quite sad for the coastal community and the development, which the salmon industry could have led out in, particularly in the coastal communities from North and South in Norway.

Wildcatch, as I said, another good quarter. First quarter is the main quarter for Havfisk. And as you can see on prices on cod and saithe has been increasing during the period, which has been fantastic for the fishing vessels. But of course, additional challenge for the land-based activity because it's challenging to transfer the raw material prices out on the finished products. But all in all, delivering more or less the same figures, also taking into account that the cod quota is a bit lower.

So then I give the floor to Britt.

[Britt Drivenes, executive]

Thank you, Arne. And we start as normal to sum up the operation in the first quarter. Arne has taken you in detail through the operation. But just short, we have had a very good operation within pelagic and whitefish in the North Atlantic. In South America -- in Chile, we've had a very good start to the year. And as normal, it has been low season in Peru. Total raw material intake of pelagic fish and whitefish was 642,000 tonnes, up from 506,000 tonnes in same quarter last year. We slaughtered a little bit lower volume in first quarter this year compared with last year, 34,000 tonnes, down from 38,000 tonnes.

Arne has taken you through the key figures, so I will not repeat too much. What I would like to mention is that our largest investment, our portfolio company, Lerøy Seafood Group ASA has implemented new alternative performance measure. They are now reporting on operational EBITDA and EBIT, which is the same as our peers within farming do. So that we have also implemented in Austevoll Seafood ASA, so you could recognize the figures for the portfolio companies also in our reporting. The -- we can see we have had an increase in our revenue, and that comes from strong price achievement, also partly driven by the weaker Norwegian kroner. The operational EBITDA is NOK 1.6 billion, up from NOK 1.5 billion. We have had income from joint ventures and associated companies of NOK 75 million, up from NOK 59 million. I will come back to that a little bit later. And we -- the operational EBIT is NOK 1.2 billion, up from NOK 1.1 billion in first quarter last year.

Looking into profit before tax, that is almost NOK 1.6 billion, up from NOK 1.4 billion, and we have had positive biomass adjustment in the quarter of NOK 460 million, as you can see on the table below. The net profit in first quarter this year is NOK 1.2 billion, up from NOK 1.053 billion. And this gives an earnings per share of NOK 3.3, up from NOK 2.6, and if we adjust the earnings per share for the fair value adjustment related to biological assets, the earnings per share in first quarter this year was NOK 2.4, up from the NOK 1.9 in the same quarter last year.

We -- our joint venture and associated companies are big firms within their segments, and they also are a large part of our total assets and important to Austevoll Seafood ASA. You can see the total investments in joint venture and associates are NOK 3.6 billion. The 2 largest ones are Norskott Havbruk and Pelagia Holding, and they are also reported separately. And you will also find more information related to these 2 companies, other places in the presentation.

Pelagia, they are continuing. They are very good development. They have had a growth in sales volumes for fishmeal and fish oil in the quarter and also higher prices for fishmeal and fish oil. And in sum, this has contributed to a higher earnings in the first quarter this year compared with same quarter last year. Norskott, they had a very challenging situation in the second half of 2022, and that has also continued in 2023. So their earnings are lower than the first quarter last year. So in total, NOK 75 million in contribution or income from joint venture and associate in this quarter, up from NOK 59 million in the same quarter last year. And this income is, of course, a part of their result after tax.

Lerøy, look at the main drivers. You can see that the slaughtered volumes of salmon and trout are 28,600 tonnes. That's the -- that's down 11% compared to same quarter last year. We have -- there is a lower volume exported or slaughtered in Norway in first quarter and first half actually compared to second half of the year, and that has impacted the price achievement. And we see that the spot prices, they are up NOK 32 from fourth quarter last year and up NOK 24 compared with same quarter or first quarter in 2022. The price achievement for Lerøy is, of course, impacted by their contract share. They have an 18% contract share in the period. The contract prices are substantially higher than the contract prices in first quarter last year, but they are below the spot prices in the quarter. Also, timing for sales impact the price achievements and the prices has been -- had been varying between NOK 80 to NOK 130 in the quarter. And also, we have had some [ winter boots ], which have affected quality and, of course, again, the price achievements.

Looking at the release from stock cost that has increased compared to same quarter last year, but also compared to fourth quarter in 2022. And the main driver behind that is the cost related to feed. To sum up that, we see that we have an EBIT per kilo in first quarter this year of NOK 26.6, up from NOK 20.4 in same quarter last year. Wildcatch, there has been the same volumes caught in the first quarter this year compared with last year. They have been efficient, and they have also seen higher prices on all the main species, except for haddock. Inflation also impacted their cost base. And for them, fuel is a large cost. And the fuel prices are up 40% compared to first quarter last year, but they have been efficient and used less fuel. So in NOK, the fuel cost is up by NOK 24 million.

To sum up, the revenue in first quarter are just below NOK 7 billion. The EBITDA is NOK 1.3 billion and the EBIT is just below NOK 1 billion.

As mentioned, as normal, a low season in Peru in the first quarter. They finalized their remaining part of the second season 2022 in January. They have -- some of the vessel has been catching mackerel and horse-mackerel. And of course, they have used this period for maintenance on factories and vessels in this low season period. Sales volumes are substantially lower compared to same quarter last year. And we went into 2023 with lower volume inventory of fishmeal and fish oil compared to when we went into 2022 when we had a much higher inventory of fishmeal and fish oil. And of course, this impacts the sales volume in fourth quarter this year. The prices for fishmeal are up 2%. And for fish oil, of course, a much larger increase, 30% and there was a low yield of fish oil in second season 2022 in Peru, and that also have impacted the prices quite a lot.

And you can see we only sold 570 tonnes of fish oil in first quarter this year compared to 3,000 tonnes in the same quarter last year. The revenue in the quarter was NOK 465 million. The EBITDA was NOK 50 million, and we had a negative EBIT of NOK 9 million.

FoodCorp, they had a very good start of 2023. They have got 43,000 tonnes out of the total quota of a little bit less than 57,000 tonnes, and there has been a good increase in the quota in 2023 compared to 2022. And the biomass is in healthy -- has a healthy status and it's well managed. A good and efficient catch has also resulted in higher sales volume of frozen fish, 21,000 tonnes, up from 15,000 tonnes, and the price achievement are lower, 11% lower compared to same period last year. Revenue in the quarter was NOK 282 million. The EBITDA was NOK 121 million, and the EBIT was NOK 110 million. And as you can see from the graph below here, they do most -- the main season for them is first half year. So they do actually their earnings in the first half of the year.

Br. Birkeland Farming, they have slaughtered a little bit above 2,400 tonnes, up from 1,500 tonnes in the same quarter last year. They sell all their salmon in the spot market, and the spot prices have been NOK 24 higher in first quarter this year compared to last year. And of course, the cost base is also increasing and especially feed, as mentioned. But they have had a very good biological performance in 2022, and that has continued into 2023. And they have fish with high slaughtering weight and also a high percentage of the high-quality or superior quality of the salmon slaughtered. So to sum up, the turnover was NOK 243 million, EBITDA of NOK 124 million and an of EBIT NOK 107 million, which gives EBIT per kilo above NOK 44.

The fishing part of Br. Birkeland, they have 4 vessels in operation this quarter. They have 4 vessels in total and all of them were in operation. The 2 pelagic vessels, they have been catching capelin and blue whiting. They have had good price achievement on both capelin and the blue whiting. And the blue whiting fishing is also taking part in the first part of second quarter. The vessel fishing snow crab has landed 522 tonnes, up from 242 tonnes in same quarter last year. But last year, 1 of the vessels came in operation in late February, so not a full quarter in 2022.

The price achievement for snow crab has been reduced during 2022 and that has also continued into 2023. So the earnings from the 2 snow crab vessels are very, very low. The total Norwegian quota for the snow crab was actually caught by the end of first quarter. So the fishing was stopped at the 3rd of April. So this means that these 2 vessels will not be in operation for the remaining part of the year. Revenue in the quarter was NOK 90 million, EBITDA of NOK 70 million and an EBIT of NOK 2 million.

We have a strong balance sheet and also it has been increasing since the end of first quarter last year, but also since the end of 2022. Total asset is now above NOK 50 billion. We have some portfolio companies with other functional currency than NOK. And of course, the exchange rate will impact also some of the -- or impact the size of the balance sheet or total assets because of the translation from foreign currency to NOK. We have mentioned inflation a couple of times. And of course, inflation gives a higher value on our inventory, but also we've seen this higher revenue and that gives us also higher receivables. We have booked equity just close to NOK 30 million, and that gives an equity ratio of 59%. And the net interest-bearing debt by the end of March was NOK 5.5 billion, up from NOK 4.2 billion by the end of March 2022.

Looking at our cash position, and we need to mention working capital again. You can see the cash from operation are NOK 450 million and impacted by the working capital. Cash from investing is minus NOK 520 million, and cash from financing is positive with NOK 193 million. So to sum up, we started the year with a cash position of NOK 4.3 billion, and we ended the quarter with a cash position of NOK 4.5 billion. The Board has recommended to the Annual Shareholder Meeting in 2023, a dividend of NOK 5.5 per share. And if this is approved at the shareholder meeting on the 25th of May, the dividend will be paid by June 9. So that was all from me.

[Arne Møgster, executive]

Then I will end up by giving our view on the different markets we are operating in, starting off with the fishmeal market and looking into the supply so far this year. And as you can see, it's increase of fishmeal production in 2023 versus 2022. But it's several reasons for that. I think blue whiting quota in the North Atlantic is 1 of the main drivers. Another driver is that in Peru, second season in 2021, the Peru players, they caught all the quota, while in 2023 -- or 2022, some of the quota was transferred into 2023. So that's the reason why the quota -- the volume is a bit up compared with same year last year.

Its uncertainty is, of course, of how big the quota will be in first season and if it -- how the fishery will develop? And if it's going to be a quota. So what we have seen now is prices have been increasing in the latest week, and you can see that it's tipping upwards and getting close to $2,000 for high-quality fishmeal and $200 discount from -- for low-quality fishmeal.

If you look at the market and look at the situation in China, which is the main market for fishmeal, you can see that they acquired a high volume from last season and are coming into the main season for agriculture and with a higher stock than they had same period last year. And I would say, are well positioned also in the beginning of season. Good volume in terms of consumption, north of 3,000 tonnes a day. And you can also see that prices they are achieving for internal sales in China is $2,000, which is also giving them an earnings for the players who are trading fishmeal, which is also affecting a higher activity in Peru.

Looking at the fish oil, you can see that the situation is a bit different. Still, I would say it's an increase of the fish oil in the North Atlantic in Peru and Chile. But I would say, overall, among the main players, you can see that it's more or less same volume as last year. And you can see that from second season '22, you saw that prices came up on a very high level. And reflecting the low yields which were in [indiscernible], in particular in Peru. And by now, I would say it's limited stock available for new offers. And there is also, I would say, limited trades because there's no visibility on both how big the quota will be and how big the oil yield will be.

Then looking into salmon, you can see that the expectation for next year is more or less on the same volume growth as we see in 2022, more or less equal to 1% growth. And that's creating, I would say, a lot of volatility in prices and are not -- are making us in a position that we are not able to, I would say, fulfill the existing markets we have built up and build up new markets. And as you can see in the first quarter as well, the prices has been extremely volatile from NOK 80 per kilo to up to NOK 125 per kilo by the end of the quarter, which makes it difficult to, I would say, run our value-added processing facilities in Europe.

Also, when the volume is coming down, it also affects the market. And you can see the main market for us in EU is down by 11%. And again, that's not good, if you want to develop salmon categories. Otherwise, the other markets has maintained their position compared with the first quarter last year. So summing up, I would say that we have had a good quarter. A bit mixed quarter when it comes to the salmon activity. We are thrilled by looking at the development up north and the biological performance there improving in Midt and we are a bit behind in the West Coast of Norway. All in all, we are expecting to produce 193,000 tonnes, including Scotland. And again, we are a bit in the gray in terms of the resource tax, both in terms of the regulation. And -- however, we know that it will have a major impact on the capacity for investment up along the coast of Norway going forward, if it's going to be implemented in the way it's been written so far.

Whitefish, looks a bit better than it did in the beginning of the season in terms of quota, has been some redistribution of quota. So cod quota is not -- down 20%, it's [ going down by 15% ]. And also the haddock quota is up by 8% and [ not ] down by 5%, which it's been indicated on the last quarterly presentation and quota for saithe, both in the North and South is up versus same period last year.

Again, I would say that unclear situation in Peru, putting pressure on prices, both for fishmeal and fish oil, which will be benefited in our North Atlantic activity in Pelagia and also in our fishmeal and fish oil activity in Chile. Yet to see what the quota finally will be. But what's fair to say is that I think anyway, if the quota will -- or the fishery will start up first quarter, I would say that majority of the sale will happen in third quarter. So we will have a negative contribution from Peru in second quarter this year.

Chile, a good start. And I would say they are performing in an optimal way in terms of the quota and raw material they have available. Pelagia, well positioned, have just gone through the main period of the blue whiting fishing and is well positioned also in terms of the volume they have received and produced to be sold in third and fourth quarter.

So that was all, and I thank you for the attention.