Bakkafrost U/Adr

In this quarter, Backerfrost had revenues of 1.9 billion, a group operational EBIT of 505 million. Our harvest in the Faroes increased by 4,600 tonne compared to the same quarter last year, and was 19,000 tonne in total. Harvest in Scotland was 6,300 tonne, 1,000 tonne less than last year. In our fish meal, oil, and feed department, feed sales were up with 4,300 ton to around 31,300 ton. External sale of fish oil was nearly none, one ton, compared to 4,300 ton last year. External sale of fish meal also reduced significantly. to 3,600 tonne compared to 13,000 tonne last year and sourcing of marine raw material was 110,000 tonne compared to 137 in the same quarter last year. Cash flow from operations were positive with 590 million and all segments had positive EBIT. On the AGM end of April, It was resolved to pay out 8.44 Danish kroner per share in dividends for last year. That will be paid out around the 21st of May. Moving on to markets and sales and beginning with the price development in the quarter on the global markets. The average price in this quarter was 92.73 NOK per kilo for 4 to 5 kilo superior salmone, which was 16% lower than last year. but 15% higher than previous quarter. Prices were high around Christmas and also continuing into the beginning of this year, but dropped quite dramatically in early January and has been following a downward trend since then. Prices were affected by increased overall global supply, but also materially by the improved biology in Norway with less downgraded fish and more large fish coming to market. In fact, the Norwegian supply of whole fish increased by 38% in this quarter. And as a result, overall prices were suppressed and the price premium for large fish also reduced According to the latest updates from Contali, global sales volume increased 5.3% in this quarter compared to last year. If we look at the largest markets, sales to Europe increased by 13,000 tons, or around 6%, which was less than half of the increase in European supply, or supply from European producers. Sales to the U.S. also increased 6 percent, which was significantly above the American supply increase, leading to higher imports from Europe. We had strong growth in sales to China, which increased almost 26 percent. Latin America dropped 7 percent, a development that seems to have changed in April and May. If we look at the harvest figures for the quarter, overall harvest, global harvest increased 8.4%. If we then include inventory movements, then the supply to the markets increased 5.3%. The growth was mainly driven by Europe, where the harvest increased 13%. And again, Norway played a significant role in this with a 13% supply increase. driven by higher seawater temperatures and better growth, and as mentioned before, lower biological issues compared to last year. Average weights in Norway were up by 1.5% approximately, feed sales up 30%. In Scotland we had a 10% improved or increased harvest volume driven by improved biology, 10% increase in feed sales, and a 4-5% increase on average weights. For pack-of-frost operation in Scotland, we delivered an increase in harvest weights of 44%, delivering 6.7kg fish on average. In the Faroes, volume growth was 20%, very much driven by all the investments that have been made in producing more large molt starting to show up as volume increases. Biology in the Faroes was strong, producing large fish, increase in feed sales of 24%. In the Americas, harvest increased by 1%, driven by Chile, which was 4% up. Also there we saw increased feeding of 15% to Atlantic salmon. Canadian harvest was down by 15%. Then moving on to financials, starting with profit and loss for the group. Revenue in the quarter decreased to around 1.9 billion. Operational EBIT, as mentioned before, 505 million. compared to 710 million last year. We had fair value adjustments of negative 376 million, driven by the lowered Selma prices. Revenue tax in this quarter was 79 million, compared to 112 million last year. Profit of the tax was minus 6 million. This translates into an adjusted earnings per share for the quarter of 4.39 DKK. Moving on to the balance sheet. Since year end, we have increased our property plant and equipment by 140 million to around 6.9 billion. Fair value of biological assets were 2.7 billion. and inventory have increased by 138 million in the quarter to 809 million. This is mainly driven by build-up of inventory of fish meal, which is normal in the first half of the year where the sourcing is at its highest. Receivables amounted to 819 million, cash equivalents to 250 million, and the equity ratio at the end of the quarter was 62%. Moving to cash flow, cash flow from operations were positive with 590 million, cash flow from investments negative with 304 million, and from financing negative with 516 million, which makes up a net change in cash of minus 230 million. In this quarter, we have reduced our net interest-bearing debt from 3 billion to around 2.8 billion. And at the end of the quarter, we had undrawn credit facilities of 2.6 billion. And now I will hand over to Rea to take you through the operation and outlook.

Thank you very much, Agne. What a quarter, starting with 130 kroner per kilo and ending with 85, a drop of 45 per kilo in a quarter, something like that. That's not seen, I guess, in the first quarter ever, in a quarter where we expected high prices. Well, let's start with the FOF segment. The FOF segment had strong feed sales, but reduced sales of fish meal and oil. We were building up inventories during the quarter of fish meal and oil for using later in the year. The sourcing of marine raw materials were 20% lower than the first quarter last year, 110,000 ton. That said, as we speak, Today, we are on the same level as last year, 220,000. So we have catched up during the last six weeks at 220. Feed sales are 16% up in the year to 31,300. External sales of fish meal and oil are low in the quarter. The operational EBIT for the segment was 63 million versus 177 last year, 63% down, mainly due to the reduction of external sales of fish meal and oil. The margin was 13% compared with 24, which relates to the same. The market price on fish oil increased during December and January, but has dropped below November price tag and fish meal prices are more or less flat. Vegetable ingredients have trended slightly up, so all in all, raw materials for feed are generally lower than one year ago, which is positive for feed cost in 2025. The freshwater segment in Faroe Islands is continuing to deliver strong operations. We are wrapping up the operations in the capacity utilization, and new production records continues in this segment. In this quarter, we transferred small from the hatcheries to the marine farms, 52% up, 3.2 million fish from 2.1 last year. Feeding in the hatcheries are 50% up, which is also a clear indication that the growth in the hatcheries are strong, supporting good growth of the supply or transfer of smalt going forward. For the full year, we have guided on 18.5 million fish to be transferred from 17.1 last year. The average weight of the transferred smolts in the first quarter was 421 gram from 410 last year. The operation has been quite promising with high quality robust smolt, which is one of the important drivers to reduce risk and drive the productivity going forward. The operational EBIT more than doubled to 56 million from 22 last year. The margin increased to 37 percent from 22 last year. And in the graph here below, we see some of the internal numbers on size of transferred fish, which are increasing per month over the last two years. And then we also see the growth, which is the feeding, which is up, and we see that the transfer goes from 450 tons up to 800 ton in average per month in the first quarter. So all in all, a good indication of a healthy operation. In Scotland, in the freshwater, we are continuing the ramp-up to transition to produce large, high-quality smalted apple groves. and transfer these to the marine farms. Phase 5 is now in operation and all the remaining part of the construction will be done this year. That will improve the biosecurity in Applecross. As we scale up the production this year and gradually replace legacy fish in our marine farms, we will expect a fundamental transformation of the farming operation in next year and onwards. In the first quarter, numbers are relatively low. Only 600,000 smalt transferred versus 1.6 last year. The average weight of the transferred smalt are only 169 gram. However, the transferred smalt from Applecross are 232 gram. So there were still some external fish transferred. And for the full year, we expect 10 million fish all in all, also including the external fish at about 200 gram. And of course with low operation and low transfer that impacts the operational EBIT which was only 1 million versus minus 34 last year. And the graph below demonstrate the change to healthy Robust Malt, which is the green color, and the red columns indicate what is left in the water of legacy fish. The farming in the Faroe Islands harvested 32% more in the first quarter this year than last year, up to 18,914 ton from 14,294 ton in the first quarter last year. The average weight reduced 7% to 5.1 kilo versus 5.4 last year. The operational epit was 287 compared with 472, per kilo, this reduced to NOC 2365 compared with 50.56 last year. The operational margin was 24 percent versus 40 last year. Biological performance in the Faroese farming operation remains very good, very robust, solid growth, effective sea lice management, harvesting of large fish in all farms. There were no big deviation between the six farms which were harvested during the first quarter. The temperature in the Faroese farming fjords increased more than normal during the first quarter this year. The deviation was 0.8 degrees in March, which is the highest we have seen. We see good growth and strong biology across all farms in Faroes. And feed consumption during the first quarter was record high, 32% above the same period in 24, which is indicated on the graph below. In Scotland, the total harvest volume reduced 13% to 6,286 ton versus 7,263 last year. The average weight was all-time high, 6.7 kilo versus 4.7 last year. The operational EBIT was 35% down to 16 million Danish kroner versus 24 last year. The operational EBIT was 395 versus 413 last year. The farming operations have been characterized by good control, High quality fish sold to markets, stable numbers on all 11 sites that were harvested in this quarter. 90% of the harvested fish in this quarter was from Loch Fyne in the south. Exceptional mortality in the quarter was very low, close to zero. Temperature in the first quarter was 0.5 degrees higher than average last 20 years. The service segment had good result and continued efficient sealize mitigation. The operation level increased 44%. to 38 million in the first quarter from 26 last year. This corresponds to NOK 235 per kilo produced versus NOK 187 last year. The margin in this segment was 17% in the first quarter versus 10% last year. The sea lice numbers in Faroes and Scotland are well below their limit and target levels. Our dual freshwater system also kept good gill health for the fish, both with reference to HD and general health. Sales and other segment. When we face the market as one company, this has enabled us in the first quarter to... to utilise our benefit to optimise Scotland to the US and China with the large fish that we have produced in Scotland. Volumes to value-added products increased by 33% in the quarter, from 3.3 to 4.4 thousand tonnes. Volumes sold as head-on guarded increased 14% to 20,807 ton versus 18,261 last year. Total volume increased 17% to 25% from 21.6%. And the operational EBIT for this segment was 42 million versus minus 2 last year. This corresponds to a margin of 1%, 2.57 versus minus 16 over the last year. The largest market is Western Europe, but in this quarter we saw larger increase from Scotland to Asia and North America due to our one company approach, which enabled us to use this opportunity with large fish from Scotland. With 13% supply growth from Norway and 38% more head-on gutted fish from Norway, as a result of less downgrades, all markets were oversupplied, particularly in the latter part of the quarter. And this affected the European markets, which were flooded. during the last part of the quarter. Faroe Islands reduced operational EBIT all in all to 435 million from 671 last year driven by reduced summer prices. Scotland improved year-on-year Operation Leapit for Scotland in the first quarter was 71 million Danish kroner compared with 39 last year. This was really positive development in a market with headwind. The strong results from Scotland are driven from large fish and better operations related to this fish group harvested in this quarter. However, we see that the summer prices have dropped significantly during the quarter, and also going into the second quarter, they have remained low, which will, of course, be negative in the second quarter. The outlook for growth in 2025 seemed a bit higher than what we expected at last presentation when we set 5%. which we have now lifted up to 6% to 7%. This reflects the good growth on the high temperatures we have seen both in Faroes, in Scotland, and in Norway, and less biological issues. It can be that the algae issues in Norway the last two weeks have impact on these numbers a bit early to say. In Faroe Islands, we increase harvest in this year, and that's driven by high numbers of transferred smolt, good robust biology, good growth. The large growth in European harvest will be or should be behind us within a few weeks at least, and will come down to 2% to 3% in the second half of the year. Chilean harvest is expected to pick up in the second half of the year, which balance out the supply during the year. So this leads to somewhat lower supply coming into the market later in the year, but there are obviously big differences in market segments and geographies reflecting the supply source. For Buccafrost outlook, volumes are expected at 97,000 ton this year. 26% of the total harvest was in the first quarter. 22% is planned in the second quarter and 51% in the second half of the year. Our de-risking strategy in Scotland continues with 68% of the harvest planned in the first quarter, in the first half of the year, and low volumes until we have more robust smolt in our operation. Smolt transfer in Faroes at 18.5 and Scotland 10 million. This is a growth of 23% compared with last year in total stocking. In the contracts, we are increasing our guidance slightly to 15% to 20% of the expected total harvest volumes. In the top segment, we expect the flat development of sourcing of raw materials for fish meal and oil. As mentioned earlier, we have now sourced more raw material in the last six weeks, so we are on par with last year, 220,000 tonne received year-to-date. Prices on feed raw materials are expected to continue on the lower market price, which is positive for feed cost and should bring cost of farming slightly down compared with last year. I think we have before mentioned around 4 to 5 kroner per kilo impact. The strategy for Baccarat Frost is to continue our de-risking, improving efficiency and growth. So we are targeting 165,000 tonne by 28 combined. to grow sustainably with high focus on utilizing our competitive advantage and value chain. There are three major projects now in progress. They are progressing well. The Apple Cross Hatchery, which will be done now in a few weeks or months at least. And then Skalavik, where we will start stocking first half of next year. These projects, and then the Hafsbrunn feed factory, which will be done by the end of this year, where we are more than doubling our capacity. These projects are crucial to achieve our goals for 28 and beyond, with robust smalt, best feed, and good fish welfare. Thank you very much. And now, if there are any questions...

Hi, Alex Orkner from DMV Carnegie. So just on the sales of meal and oil, which was quite low in Q1, is that going to be the same case in Q2? And also on the contract market, you now say you're going to increase the contract share, but what's it like signing contracts when the market is as oversupplied as it is today?

So with the FAF segment, when we entered 25, we were low in inventories. We have built up inventories in the first quarter. Of course, depending on the sourcing in the second quarter, we will see how much we will sell externally. There will be some increased sales in the second quarter, I believe. as we have had good sourcing the last six weeks. Sourcing is depending on catches and also external sources, because we don't have the boats ourselves. So that's why it's difficult to predict. And we need to have inventories, especially for the high season, which is in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter, where we use more raw materials for our feed operation. So that's why... We need to build up normally our inventories this time of the year. 23 was an exceptional year. We have mentioned that a couple of times. So 23 is not a reference point. So we believe slightly better numbers in the second quarter, in the fourth segment, and in the third quarter. Coming to contracts, I did not say that we are signing contracts right now. I guide that we think that going forward our contract this year will be slightly higher. The time of signing new contracts, of course, we will try to optimize in order to make sure that's not reflecting the lowest price in the market.

Understood. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Christian, Arctic Securities. In terms of the warmer sea water temperatures you're having in the Faroe Islands and also in Scotland now, do you view this as, for the time being, as an advantage or a disadvantage? Or is it neutral for you?

Good question, Christian. For the first quarter and during April, it has been very, very good on feeding. We have seen feeding rates that we have never seen before in this quarter. Sealized lumbers have also been slightly more activity on treatment. But with our capacity with freshwater jewel treatment systems, we are handling that very well. Very low mortalities, very good fish welfare, good quality on the fish. So at the moment, I think it's positive. Of course, we don't like changes in the environment. Whether or not this is outside a normal picture, it's difficult to say. At least in the Faroes, we have not seen in March. The temperature we saw in March was higher than what we have seen in March any year. Otherwise, the last 20 years, everything has been within normal deviation. but March this year was slightly higher. In Scotland, the deviation is within what we have seen the last 20 years. So I see it at the moment positive, but we will see.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for the questions. Thank you for coming. Thank you.