Austevoll Seafood ASA

OSE:AUSS

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Arne Møgster, executive]

It is a pleasure to welcome you all to Austevoll Second Quarter and First Half Year Financial Presentation. I will first start this presentation by giving you the highlights in the quarter and first half. Thereafter, I would go through the different segments we are operating within. Britt Kathrine Drivenes , our CFO, will take you through more in detail -- the numbers. And we will end this session by giving our view on the different markets we are operating within.

So starting up, we have had quite decent quarter. We have record revenue of approximately NOK 8.5 billion. The earnings is a bit down compared with the same quarter last year and has mainly to do with the -- that they didn't open a season in Peru which had a very successful season in second half last year. And this year, it has been almost no catch. I will come back to that later. But looking at our EBITDA, it's just sort of NOK 1.5 billion. Operational EBIT just sort of NOK 1 billion and a profit before tax and biomass adjustment of just below NOK 800 million. There is also some implementation effects on the resource tax, which were implemented in second quarter this year, but will take you more in detail through that numbers, but that information -- implementation effect is around NOK 1.8 billion on our second quarter result and give us a negative net profit of approximately NOK 1.1 billion.

If you look at our result before depreciation, the EBITDA and also include 50% share of Pelagia, which we have done every quarter. You can see that our EBITDA is NOK 1.6 billion, down from NOK 1.9 billion. Leroy is delivering more or less the same result in the quarter. And you can see that due Austral the result is only 50% of last quarters or similar quarter last year.

Looking at year-to-date first half, you see revenue is NOK 16.5 billion, EBITDA of NOK 3 billion an operational EBIT of NOK 2.2 billion, and profit before tax and biomass adjustment is approximately just below NOK 1.9 billion. And you can also see that this implementation effect of resource tax also influence our balance sheet. And the total asset is growing compared with the same period last year. I can also see that our net interest-bearing debt is growing. It's mainly due to an increase of working capital mainly related to salmon activity and equity ratio is reduced due to the tax effect from 56% to 52%.

Looking at doing the same exercise first half year, including 50% of Pelagia numbers you can also see that we are more or less on earnings on EBITDA delivering more or less the same numbers this year as last year, a bit higher on salmon and a bit lower on the Pelagic side. Our activity is mainly all about volumes, and it's huge volumes in the different areas we are operating within. We are -- if you look at the right-hand side, you can see that on an annual basis, we are catching on average between 350,000 to 450,000 tonnes of pelagic fish on our own license with their own fishing vessels every year.

We are also receiving in our pelagic factories a volume of to 1.6 to 2 million tonne on an annual basis, approximately 100,000 tonnes of whitefish through our ownership in Havfisk and Lerøy Norway Seafood and on an annual basis, we are slaughtering between 200,000 to 220,000 tonnes of salmon.

Then taking you through the different segments, and I will start off with the Pelagic side on our operation in Peru. And as you can see by the photograph on the left-hand side, the temperature started to particularly increase late March, beginning of April. In Peru, we have two fishing seasons, one starting up normally between April to August, the other one from, I would say, November to January.

And before every fishing season, [ IMARPE ] during our research to settle the quota and the biomass in the sea. In this particular case, the conditions were extremely warm in the ocean, as you can see on the picture on the left side from April to August. And in reality, they never opened a season. They started some trial season, and it was 5 days in June and 10 days in August. For us, I would say, limited -- extremely limited volumes in second quarter.

The table on the right-hand side tells you a bit about the expectation for the next season in terms of temperatures and approximately 80% is of forecasts are estimating that the El Niño will be weak to moderate. And it's difficult to predict the quota for the next season. But we have had similar periods where we have moderate and weaker El Niño, 1 in 16, then the quota was set at 2 million tonnes. The year after, we had a weak El Niño. And then the quarter was at 1.5 million tonnes, and the year after also, it was a weaker El Niño and the quota was at 2 million tonnes.

So we are expecting that it will be a season second half but I would say it's difficult for us to predict how much the volume will be. So we have given in our presentation, a guesstimate between 0 and 1.5 million tonnes. But of course, that's subject to IMARPE’s recommendation.

So summing up Peru, as you can see on the table in the second quarter, 11,000 tonnes handled in the quarter compared with 235,000 tonnes same year. And I would say, it's been a very slow season. And that's the reason why we have negative earnings in this quarter compared with a very successful second quarter 2002 (sic) [ 2022 ].

Same situation in the South in the factory in Ilo, which the 2 latest year in '21 and '22 were good raw material years. This year, it's been limited to 12,000 tonnes, which is far behind what we had in the same period last year. Positive effect, I would say, is that the catches for human consumption horse-mackerel and mackerel is almost double compared with the same period last year. And for the first time, the Peruvian fleet had also been outside the 200 miles catching the international quota that have in international waters.

I would say Chile has had a positive pattern, I would say, for the last 12 years. The annual quota for the Chilean fleet was almost down to 200,000 tonnes. And has now tripled up to 700,000 tonnes. In our case, our own quota was increased from approximately 46,000 to 56,000 tons and all is caught during first half. And I would say also both the fleet factories and the operation has been operating in a very good manner. In addition, the sardine and anchovy season, a bit better than both same quarter and first half last year. And the yield has been good. So when fishing in Peru has been failed -- failing, we have seen increasing prices both for fishmeal and fish oil in -- also in Chile.

Looking at the North Atlantic quotas, you can see for the last 5 years, it's been quite steadily volume just higher than 3.5 million tonnes. There's been some variation from species to species. But I would say, all in all, volume has been stable. This is the -- I would say, the basis for the activity we are doing in Pelagia. And what I would say this year which has been excited for -- exciting for us is the blue whiting quota which is up by approximately 81%, where we are producing fishmeal and fish oil and when Peru is failing again, has given us increasing margin in this segment.

So as you can see on fishmeal and fish oil side, it's an increase of approximately 50,000 tonnes of raw material intake in the quarter and in the year, approximately 130,000 tonnes increase first half year versus same period last year. And it's mainly the increase of blue whiting quota, which has been a good driver for that. Strong market, both for marine protein, fish oil and fishmeal.

On the EU mackerel consumption side, I would say, it's a seasonably slow quarter unless I would say, more useful talking about the period from now to the end of the year when you are talking about this segment. We're going to catch by the Norwegian fleet approximately between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of Mackerel, North Sea herring and NVG herring in the remaining of the year, and this is where these segments are doing there -- the year.

Looking at the result, again, a better performance in this quarter. Pelagia has beaten the same quarter, I think, 8, 9 times now and are performing extremely well. Revenue of NOK 2.5 billion, EBITDA of NOK 330 million and EBIT of NOK 232 million, which is up from last year. And you can see first half year, you see that revenue is NOK 5.5 billion and an EBITDA of NOK 700 million and EBIT of NOK 522 million which is almost a doubling from same period last year.

Then looking at salmon, whitefish and the situation there. And summing up, I would say that Leroy is delivering an operational EBIT of NOK 950 million, more or less on the same level as last year. I would say it's a good underlying performance both in Leroy Aurora, Leroy Midt and also on Sjotroll production. But I would say, weak -- some weak biological performance in -- for salmon in Lerøy Sjøtroll. Slaughter in the period, 30,000 tonnes, 8,000 tonnes in Leroy Aurora, 10,000 tonnes in Leroy Midt approximately 11,000 tonnes in Leroy Sjotroll. EBIT per kilo. It's just below NOK 29 per kilo, where we have NOK 33 per kilo in Leroy Aurora, NOK 28 per kilo in Lerøy Midt and approximately NOK 19 per kilo in Lerøy Sjøtroll.

And I would say, all in all, unacceptable quarter but I would say the drive-in for next quarter, in particular in Lerøy Aurora and Lerøy Midt is good. And unfortunately, when it comes to Lerøy Sjøtroll, we had 2 ISA outbreak on fish in an early stage of farming, which has led into that. We need to slaughter this volume on low weights and both cost and earnings will be affected by that situation. So we have reduced Lerøy Sjøtroll guiding to 57,000 tonnes.

Also, Norskott Havbruk been through a quarter, which has been extremely challenging on the biological performance and the volume is also taking down to 13,500 tonnes there. When it comes to Leroy Seafood Group, when it comes to Wild catch, I will say that the performance I would say, both on fishing and also processing has been very good, considering that the volumes, in particular for cod is down compared with last year. This has been substituted with a higher focus on -- in particular, redfish this quarter and volume is up, but redfish is, of course, are lower-value species. We see haddock prices is coming down and cod prices more or less stable and saithe prices also steadily increases. But all in all, considering haddock prices coming down, I would say the segment is delivering quite good margins, and we also see an effect of lower fuel consumption and also lower prices on fuel. And I give the floor to Britt.

[Britt Drivenes, executive]

Thank you, Arne. As normal, we start up with summing up the raw material intake in the quarter and shortly, we have had a very good activity in the North Atlantic and also in Chile. However, as Arne has taken you through in the presentation earlier, there has been no first season in Peru only a few days of expiratory fisheries. So -- and that is the main reason behind the decrease in raw material intake in the first quarter.

To sum up, total intake of Wild catch was NOK 368,000, down from NOK 544,000 in the same quarter last year. Unfortunately, I have to talk a little bit about the new Resource rent tax here in Norway on 31st of May in 2023, the Norwegian government decided to adopt a resource rent tax of 25% and salmon, on earnings from the production of salmon and trout in the sea.

The resource rent tax in 2023 will consist of 2 elements: First, an implementation effect, that's a one-off effect. And secondly, a resource rent tax for the period. And the implementation effect is estimated for the group to NOK 1.8 billion. And the entire amount also NOK 1.8 billion comes from increased deferred tax on the stock of fish in the sea at the beginning of the year. The resource tax calculation for the period shall be based on the earnings from production of salmon and trout in the sea. And as you probably are aware of, we have a long value chain within aquaculture. So it's quite complicated to isolate the earnings in the sea.

Although the main principle has been defined, there is still a lot of important details missing in order to carry out a reliable calculation for the earnings in sea. And the main challenge, as I mentioned, is to segregate the aquaculture activity in sea, which are subject to resource rent tax from other activities, not subject to the basic rent tax. This complex and is a comprehensive exercise in our fully integrated value chain. Taking these elements into account, the group has therefore decided not to include any estimate of the resource rent tax for the period on earnings in second quarter and first half of the year. Thus, the resource rent tax cost does only consists of the implementation effects of NOK 1.8 billion.

Looking into second quarter, you can see that revenue were up 8% and that is driven by the revenue from salmon and trout. It's driven by high price achievement but also as a consequence of a weak Norwegian krone. We have an operational EBITDA of NOK 1.4 billion, down from NOK 1.8 billion in the same quarter last year. And the decrease in operational EBITDA is -- as a consequence of the lack of a first season in Peru mainly. Income from joint venture and associates are NOK 14 million, down from NOK 110 million in same quarter last year and I will come back to that later on. But I can say that the main reason behind the decrease in income from joint ventures are a very challenging biological situation in Norskott in second half of last year, which has continued into 2023.

The operational EBIT is -- sorry -- the operational EBIT is a little bit less than NOK 1 billion, down from NOK 1.5 billion in same quarter last year. This gives a profit before tax and fair value adjusted related to biological assets of NOK 774 million, down from NOK 1.1 billion in the same period last year. And here, of course, you can see the implementation effect on the biomass in sea at the beginning of the year of NOK 1.8 billion, which, of course, heavily influenced our net profit after tax. So the net profit after tax in second quarter are minus NOK 1.1 billion, down from NOK 1.8 billion in the same quarter last year.

Earnings per share, and I refer to the earnings per share before biomass adjustment are minus NOK 3.2 in second quarter. And again, having influenced by this implementation effect of resource rent tax, and it's down from NOK 2.5 in the same quarter last year. Looking at the first half of the year, the revenue were up by 14% and ended on almost NOK 16.5 billion. Operational EBITDA is NOK 3.1 billion, down from NOK 3.3 billion. And again, the same lack of first season in Peru has influenced also the earnings in first half of the year. Income from joint venture and associates are NOK 88 million, down from NOK 169 million. And again, the negative contribution from Norskott due to the challenging biological situation are the reason behind that.

The operational EBIT came in at NOK 2.2 billion, down from NOK 2.6 billion and profit before tax and fair value adjustment was close to NOK 1.9 billion, down from NOK 2.2 billion and again, you can see the implementation effect of the resource rent tax of NOK 1.8 billion, which gives us a net profit of NOK 85 million in first half of 2023 down from NOK 2.8 billion in 2022. Adjusted earnings per share and as before the biomass adjustment was minus NOK 0.8, down from NOK 4.3.

As mentioned, I'm coming back to the earnings from joint venture and associate and the 2 largest joint ventures are Norskott Havbruk and Pelagia Holding. Norskott Havbruk, had a very, very challenging situation in second half of 2022, this has continued into 2023. And in addition, we have taken into the cost, high mortality in second quarter. This gives a net result after tax or share 50% of minus NOK 78 million in second quarter compared to a positive of NOK 122 million in second quarter last year. Looking at first half year, it's minus NOK 95 million, down from NOK 219 million positive in first half of 2022.

Pelagia still continued their very good performance. They have had growth and very good high sales volumes and also a very good price achievements for fishmeal, fish protein, concentrate and fish oil. And this has given higher earnings in second quarter 2023 compared to second quarter 2022 and also for the first half of '23 compared to same period last year.

Arne has taken you through the main drivers for Leroy Seafood Group. And of course, that is the slaughtered volumes of salmon and trout and it's a decrease of 10% in slaughter volume in second quarter this year compared to same quarter last year. The spot prices has been more or less on the same level as same quarter last year. However, the price achievement for Leroy are affected by several factors. Of course, their share of contracts, which have been 17% in the quarter, price realization on contracts are up year-on-year, but below the spot prices in the quarter. In addition, of course, the quality of the fish impacts the price achievements, but also timing of when you slaughter the fish.

And the prices were higher in the beginning of the quarter compared to by the end of the quarter. Cost or inflation trends brings higher cost year-on-year so the release from stock cost are higher in second quarter this year compared to same quarter last year. Looking at the Wild catch, there has been an increase in catch volumes compared to same period last year even though the quotas has decreased, they have managed to increase the catch and they have substituted by catching a higher volume of -- especially redfish in the quarter. There is a small increase in the price per cod, and there is a decrease in the price for haddock and shrimps. And also, there has been a reduction in the fuel prices in the quarter.

So all in all, the revenue in second quarter was close to NOK 7.7 billion. The operational EBITDA was NOK 1.3 billion and operational EBIT was NOK 950 million. There's not too much to say about Austral Group. Arne has informed you about the situation in Peru in the second quarter. And of course, there has been a very low activity in the quarter. And the raw material intake was a little bit over 10,000 tonnes compared to almost 235,000 tonnes in the same quarter last year. Of course, this has also given a very low sales volume in the quarter, but there are very high prices, both on fishmeal and especially on fish oil but low volumes as said. The revenue are NOK 238 million in the operational EBITDA is negative and influence of a very low activity of minus NOK 157 million, and operational EBIT is minus NOK 222 million. And you can see that the company also has very low inventory of finished products going into Q3.

FoodCorp has continued a very good development, and they have had a very efficient catch and have finalized the quota horse mackerel within the end of June this year. And they also have had a good raw material intake of anchoveta and sardine going into the fishmeal and fish oil production. Price achievement a little bit down on the frozen products, but higher prices for fishmeal and fish oil, which has given a good contribution from this part of the company. Revenue of NOK 337 million and operational EBITDA of NOK 138 million and an operational EBIT of NOK 126 million. Due to that they have finalized their horse mackerel quota, there will be very limited activity for the company in the second half of 2023.

Br. Birkeland Farming is a small farm, salmon farmer on the west coast of Norway. They have slaughtered a little bit less than 2,000 tonnes, down from 2,800 tonnes in the same quarter last year. And they have had a very good biological performance also in second quarter but also most of their slaughtered volume was slaughtered in April and May when the prices were at the highest. And they sell all the fish in the spot market. The inflation also gives a higher release from cost in second quarter this year compared to last year and especially driven by the higher feed cost. The revenue are NOK 233 million in the quarter, and the operational EBITDA is NOK 147 million and an operational EBIT of NOK 127 million, which gives an earnings or an EBIT per kilo just below NOK 64.

At Br. Birkeland, the 2 Pelagic vessels have had operations in second quarter. They have finalized their remaining quotas of blue whiting. In addition, they have got some North Sea herring. Price achievement has been higher compared to last year. But the 2 Pelagic vessels are really starting their main season now in third quarter when they start fishing of mackerel quota, the remaining North Sea herring quota and also the NVG herring quota.

Looking at the snow crab vessel, the 2 snow crab vessel, they have had no activity in second quarter and total quota in Norway for snow crab was finalized in the first days of April. And this means they will not have any activity in second half of the year either, and they have contributed negatively into the result in the quarter.

Revenue of NOK 59 million and operational EBIT of minus NOK 17 million. The group has a total asset of close to NOK 52 billion, part of the group companies have other functional currency than NOK. So of course, the weak Norwegian kroner will impact the size of the financial position during the year and also between the years. We have talked about the inflationary trends. And of course, this -- of course, by this, we have a higher capital tied up in working capital and especially in inventory.

We have a NOK 27 billion in booked equity. This is impacted by the implementation effect of the resource rent tax of NOK 1.8 billion. So our equity ratio down to 52% compared to 56% by the end of June last year. But still, we have a very strong financial position.

I will end by taking you through the cash flow and we look at the first half year, and I've already mentioned that we tie up more in working capital. So the cash flow from operation activities are NOK 1.4 billion in the first half of the year.

Cash from investing activities are minus NOK 633 million. And as you can see, we have received NOK 228 million in dividends from our joint ventures. Cash flow from financing activities are positive, up the NOK 278 million in the first of the year. And I can mention that we have issued both Austevoll Seafood and Leroy Seafood Group has issued new bonds in second quarter, of course, which also influenced first half of the year. Austevoll Seafood have issued senior unsecured bonds of a total of NOK 800 million. And Leroy Seafood Group issued 3 green senior unsecured bonds totaling to NOK 1.5 billion. We have also paid dividends in June and both Austevoll Seafood and also to the minority interest of the other group companies totaling to NOK 1.9 billion in the period.

So to sum up, we started the year with a cash position of NOK 4.3 billion, and we ended the period in June by a cash position of NOK 5.3 billion.

[Arne Møgster, executive]

Then I will end this session by giving a different view on the different markets we are operating within. Starting up, taking you through the Fishmeal market with focus on what's happening in Peru. But looking at the left-hand table first, you can see among the largest Fishmeal producer in the world, the production has come down by approximately 33% up to week 31. And as you can see in Peru, it's down by 74% versus the same period in 2022.

In reality is, extremely low volume, which has been trading out of the Peru. So the updated prices are not necessarily reflecting the reality on Fishmeal prices, as you can see on the graph here, which I would come into the next slide.

So if you look at the situation in China, you can see that stock is down by 26% to 140,000 tonnes and has dropped 47% from only 2 months ago, which is more or less related to limited arrivals from Peru, and also aquaculture has been having quite high offtake of fishmeal. Recently 4,400 tonnes per day, which is quite high. This has also affected the prices, and you can now see that the prices traded in China reflects full prices in Peru for super prime of north of $2,500 per tonne.

So more or less the same situation in when it comes to fish oil. Peru is down by 90%. The overall production among the largest producer is down by 25%. And you can see here, it's reflecting, in particularly on the omega-3 grade fish oil, which prices have surpassed $8,000 per tonne. And feed grade from Peru on high EPA and DHA oil is over $5,000 per tonne. And obviously, it's limited stock available from Peru.

If we look at the total supply pictures when it comes to salmon, you can see that we have another year with no growth in 2023, same situation in 2022. And again, if we look in 2024, which is, of course, some time ahead, we only have a small growth in the volume and more or less underlying strong market parameters going forward.

And you can see that we have an equivalent development as we had last year with a lot of volatility in prices from approximately 60 -- above NOK 60 per kilo up to NOK 230 per kilo, which is quite challenging. Price is coming down as a consequence and as normal when production is coming up. If you look at the Atlantic salmon consumption, you can see that EU is having a stronger reduction than, I would say, the regions, which is more or less spot-based trades and is a consequence that is less, I would say, fixed contract in the retail market in EU compared with previously because of the situation with the resource tax here in Norway.

So again, Resource tax summing up is adopted in May. It's a quite heavy bureaucracy in terms of trying to investigate and find out what kind of tax rate we're going to utilize in the sea phase, and we will come back to that on a later stage. But again, it's extremely problematic for the salmon companies trying to create value out in particular, around the coast from south to north in Norway.

Biological development is quite good in Lerøy Aurora and Lerøy Midt, and we have some challenging biological issues in the Lerøy Sjøtroll. We got ISA in 2 locations, as I said, which will have the significant impact on the result of Leroy and have downgraded our volume guidance to 108,500 (sic) [ 181,500 ] tonnes in 2023.

Whitefish, I will say is impressive that we are delivering more or less the same numbers in this segment, considering the main species for whitefish is coming down. We are seeing a similar development into 2024 where cod is down by 20% and haddock down is 25% and it seems like the recommendation for saithe is a bit of. In South America, starting up with Peru, it has been a challenging period for the Peruvian players. And of course, we are looking quite closely -- monitoring quite closely the development on El Niño in front of the next fishing seasons and hoping to have an acceptable season in the second half but are also prepared in terms of it's going to be a challenge season there as well.

In Chile, again, a fruitful development in quota, which has been quite positive since 2011. And we are doing the result in Chile, first half, and I would say second half is slow periods. And in the North Atlantic, again, Pelagia due to the failure of Peru are also harvesting better margins in terms of the fishmeal, fish concentrate and fish oil products than maybe expected, which is reflected in the numbers and expecting to have a quite good and active season going forward now for fish and for human consumption.

So that's all. Thank you.