Mowi Asa

Good morning everyone. My name is Ivan Windheim and I'm the CEO of Movi. It is a great pleasure. I wish you all welcome to the presentation of Movi's first quarter results of 2021. Also this time around digitally. On that note, I hope you are all doing fine out there under the prevailing circumstances and that we can all meet again physically in the not too distant future. With me today to walk us through our financial figures and fundamentals, I have as usual our CFO, Tristan Ellingson. And after the presentation, our IRO, Kim Dusvik, will facilitate a Q&A session via email, where you can submit your questions in advance or as we go along. Please refer to our website at movi.com for the necessary details. The disclaimer I think we leave for self-study. Then highlights. Overall, I would say the first quarter turned out to become a reasonably good quarter for Mowi, both operationally and financially. Despite the pandemic, we have managed to keep our more than 200 farms and 35 factories in 25 countries running close to normal by means of maintaining the strictest biosecurity measures all across our business. At the same time, we have also managed to keep our people safe. So a big thanks to all our 12,200 employees that have made that happen. It's much appreciated. Last time we met, we said we expected increasing prices in the first quarter on lower seasonal supply and strong demand, partly driven by Lent and Easter season. This came indeed true, and it's therefore very encouraging to record the highest quarterly operational EBIT since the start of the pandemic of 109 million euros. particularly taking into consideration a two-digit global supply growth of 14% year over year. That's evidently a clear indication of a very strong underlying salmon market, notwithstanding the ongoing pandemic and the market disruptions it brings about. For a sake, the operational EBIT of 109 million euro is also in line with the trading update of the 20th of April. The increase in profit quarter of a quarter is not only explained by increasing prices. Farming volumes of 125,000 tons were also record high for a first quarter. Despite having our share of the issues, I would in general describe biology as reasonably good in the quarter with relatively good growth conditions and thereby good growth. Blended farming costs of 4.20 euro per kilo was also good in the quarter and substantially down from the 4.62 euro per kilo we had in the corresponding quarter last year and in the lower end of previous quarters. Bear in mind that the first quarter of last year was highly impacted by low volumes and high released from stock costs driven by elevated mortalities in 2019, especially in the second half of the year. For sales and marketing parts, we had yet another impressive quarter with record high first quarter volumes of 62,000 tonnes and earnings. On the back of, among others, the pandemic-driven shift we have seen from food service to retail and supporting tailwinds from Lent and Easter season. Feed and feed numbers, on the other hand, were impacted by low season in the first quarter, with all that entailed. Last, but not least, the Board of Directors has declared an ordinary dividend of NOC 0.77 per share, equivalent to 50% of underlying earnings per share. Quarterly dividend, for all the sake. So much about highlights for the quarter, then over to key financials. Christian will go in depth on financial figures under his session, so to not disrupt the course of events, we will just touch briefly upon the most important ones now. Turnover was record high for our first quarter of 1.022 billion euro, equivalent to a top line growth of 16% year over year. This is explained by, as already said, record high first quarter farming volumes of 125,000 tons, up as much as 51% year-over-year. Prices, in turn, contributed negatively with an overall price achievement down by 19% year-over-year. Recall that although prices were increasing during the quarter, they came from a very low level. contrary to the pre-pandemic prices we saw in January and February last year, that were at record high levels. Operation EBIT of 109 million euro we have already commented on. Underlying earnings per share in the quarter was 15 euro cents and annualized return on capital employed was 12.7%. In terms of regional margins through the value chain, it was yet again a mixed bag where Norway, Scotland and Ireland stand out as the margin winners, whereas Canada was still in a loss-making territory. The margin spread between the regions is, as you know, to a large extent explained by cost differences and will be duly revisited when we go through the various business entities. Then prices. As already said, it was as expected an encouraging first quarter price-wise with rising spot prices in all markets on lower seasonal supply and strong demand, partly driven by Lent and Easter season. We also expect good prices going forward, provided that the pandemic does not escalate. Christian will elaborate more on prices and supply demand under his session then our own price achievement overall it was five percent below the reference price in the quarter and i guess you could say it varied from great to rather disappointing to start off on a positive note we had a very good relative price achievement for salmon of scottish origin driven by good contracts and good spot price achievement For salmon of Norwegian origin, it was a rather disappointing price performance, mainly driven by winter sores and resultant downgrading. Contracts were neutral in the quarter, more or less. In terms of winter sores, we managed well for a good while this year, until it unfortunately escalated in March. We also had some issues in April, but it has diminished as seawater temperatures have picked up. As the name clearly indicates, winter sores are a bacterial infection that primarily affects salmonid fish in seawater during cold periods, conditions under which its main causative agent, Moritella viscosa, becomes more pathogenic. Relative price performance for salmon of Canadian and Chilean origin were also below the reference price. The former due to winter source and maturity issues, and the latter due to Brazilian prices substantially lower than urn of berry prices in the quarter, in addition to some downgrading. Then the EBIT waterfall. Overall, it was an unusual stable development in operation EBIT year over year. 109 million euro versus 109 million euro. It doesn't get any closer than that. But the mix is different and the same goes for the backdrop of the quarter. Bear in mind that the COVID-19 pandemic escalated in mid-March last year. So to a large extent, we are comparing our first quarter profit numbers this year with pre-pandemic numbers. For farming, that has resulted in 34 million euro lower EBIT due to lower prices of 138 million euro in absolute terms. On the other hand, Lower costs and higher volumes have contributed positively with 53 million and 51 million euro respectively. For consumer products, we have yet again benefited from our integrated value chain. There are 21 value-added factories all around the world and the shift we have seen in demand from food service to retail. Year-over-year operation EBIT is up by 30 million euro. All the entities are more or less unchanged profit-wise. Then it's time to address the various business entities, and as usual, we start with our largest and most important one, Mowi Norway. Operation EBIT was 73 million euro in the quarter, down from 84 million euro in the comparable quarter last year. EBIT margin was 0.98 euro per kilo versus 1.66 last year. As the graph clearly demonstrates, the drop in profit is caused by lower prices only. Both lower costs and record high first quarter volumes contributed positively. As already said, under the walkthrough of the relative price achievement for Norway, we have had issues with winter sores and resultant downgrading in March, which lingered on in April before they diminished as seawater temperatures have picked up. We have also had some gill issues and knock-on effects in that regard in mid-Norway in the quarter. Other than that, biology and growth conditions have been reasonably good. For the second quarter, we expect somewhat higher costs on lower volumes. Then, EBIT per kilo per region. Margin-wise, it was a mixed bag, also this time around for our three regions in Norway. Region North stands yet again out as the best margin performer on good production and very low cost, 34 NOK per kilo. Region South had a good quarter as well with a satisfactory cost. Region Mid on the other hand suffered from already mentioned gill issues and knock-on effects in that regard. In terms of winter shores and the magnitude of issues, they have been increasingly burdensome the farther north we get. Then our Norwegian sales contract portfolio. Due to our positive market view last fall, we deliberately chose to have relatively low contract share for our Norwegian volumes this year, i.e. 65,000 tons on a full year basis, or 25% of our total volumes as we speak. In the first quarter, contract share was as low as 21%. So far, this has truly been a successful strategy. But for order's sake, we reserve the right to change this if we find it timely and opportune. In terms of prices, the reminder of the volumes for 2021 are in line with the recognized contract prices in the first quarter. Then over to Scotland and Mowi Scotland. Mowi Scotland had yet another great quarter with an operation EBIT of 27 million euro. This is substantially up compared to the same quarter last year on record high first quarter volumes and significantly lower costs. Prices are as we can see from the graph down. Both production and biology were good in the quarter. Other than that, there is not much to say about Mowi Scotland this time around. The numbers, they speak for themselves. For the second quarter, we expect somewhat higher costs as we harvest from sites outside the Isle of Skye, carrying a higher cost level. Then, Canada. For Mowi Canada's part, we had yet another loss-making quarter on very low prices. and, albeit being relatively stable, high released from stock cost. The recently announced turnaround plan for Canada is progressing, but due to the length of the production cycle, it will take time before this results in lower release from stock cost. Therefore, we expect high costs for MoE Canada in the second quarter as well. Other than that, biology and production were normal in the quarter for Canada. Then, far south in America, Chile. Mowi Chile turned a profit of €8 million in the first quarter after having recorded a loss of €10 million in the fourth quarter. This is owing to increased prices compared to the fourth quarter. That said, compared to the first quarter last year, the prices are substantially down for Chile as well. Higher volumes and lower release from stock costs have, on the other hand, contributed positively year over year. The first quarter is summer season in Chile, and this summer has been unusually warm and dry, leading to more issues than normal related to low B.O. and algae. But all things considered, I think we have managed reasonably well, though with some elevated mortalities. And now we are rapidly approaching winter time in this part of the world, and presumably an easier biology. In terms of inter-inventory, we still do not carry any frozen inventory. All harvested volumes have been sold at increasing prices. Then the time has come for Moe Island and Moe Faroes. For the salmon of Irish origin, we have had another impressive quarter with a margin of as high as 4.55 euro per kilo, partly driven by OVA sales. And not so impressive margin of 0.48 euro per kilo, I guess you could say for our Therese operation. But bear in mind that volumes were very low in the quarter, resulting in high share of fixed costs. Moe Farrells will go back to more normal volumes and costs from the second quarter onwards. In terms of biology and production, there is not much to report this time. Things were reasonably good in the first quarter for both entities. From farming to our downstream business, consumer products, as touched upon initially, the first quarter was a very good quarter for consumer products with an operation EBIT of record high, 32 million euro, on also record high first quarter volumes. up from 2 million euro year over year. We saw, as already said, good development in demand, partly driven by tailwinds from Lent and Easter season. Demand in retail continued to be very good, on which we yet again have capitalized through our integrated value chain. And although extensive lockdown measures are still in place, we see that out-of-home consumption has started to improve in some markets. So we estimate the overall net demand impact from COVID-19 in the quarter to be quite neutral. Then our latest addition to the Moe family, Moe feed. The first quarter is characterized by low season for Moe feed, but all that entails on low seawater temperatures in the northern hemisphere. And this year was no exception. Operation EBIT of negative 3 million euro is largely in line with the first quarter of last year of negative 1 million euro. The same goes for the quarterly volumes of 100,000 tons. Although Brexit has caused some temporary startup issues, particularly with regard to import certificates, I think we have managed reasonably well so far. And overall, feed production has been satisfactory in the quarter. And the same goes for feed performance. It has been very good in the new year. Thank you, Christian. The floor is all yours, so you can walk us through our financial figures and fundamentals. Thank you so far.

thank you very much ivan good morning everybody hope everybody is doing well as usual we start with the profit and loss statement where the top line shows operational revenue of 1 billion euro up 16 from q120 on significantly higher volumes partly offset by the 19 lower achieved prices operational ebit 109 million euro equivalent to return on capital employed of 12.7%, which is above the 12% target and thus satisfactory. Operational EBIT stable from Q120, which is a good achievement given that COVID-19 has had a full impact on numbers this quarter. And the effect of lower realized prices was offset by reduced farming costs, higher volumes and improved earnings in sales and marketing, first and foremost, our consumer products division. Then a few comments on the items between operational EBIT and financial EBIT. We see a net fair value adjustment of biomass of plus 88 million euro this time around on higher prices at the end of the quarter. Income from associated companies includes the gain of 53 million euro from the sale of the shares in DES Aqua and the rest is related to our associated company NovoC where we are the largest shareholder with 48.5% of the shares. Operationally NovoC had a good result. of euro 1.63 in the quarter that was somewhat above region north in maui on margin on better price performance Then we move on to the financial position. Total assets are up approximately 150 million euros from the end of last year, as we see, of which increased fair value adjustment in the balance sheet explains approximately 100 million euros. Of the remaining movement, the acquisition of one farming license in region north explains approximately 20 million euros. And I would say that the financial position is quite strong with a covenant equity ratio of 56%. The cash flow was positive in the quarter with 185 million euro cash flow, which took the net interest bearing debt from 1.46 billion euro to 1.27 billion euro. Cash flow from operation as we see 169 million euro with a seasonal release of working capital in the first quarter and we see that that effect was partly offset by tax payments. Tax payments however lower this year due to lower earnings in 2020. And the cash proceeds from the sale of Das Aqua contributed with 113 million euro. So quite a significant effect. This overview of our financing is unchanged from Q4. The committed financing of 2 billion euro is unchanged and we have approximately 680 million euro in cash and undrawn lines. And we are comfortably within the covenant equity ratio and we have no earnings covenant. When it comes to the cash flow guiding for 2021, this is unchanged for most items. However, tax payments taken somewhat down as we see here from 80 to 60 million Euro. Working capital tie up 110 million Euro and changed. We expect to tie up working capital related to organic growth, including increased accounts receivable in sales and marketing on higher prices. CapEx, 265 million euro unchanged, and also interest, 45 million euro unchanged. Then, over to market fundamentals. We start with the supply, as usual. Supply was 14% up versus Q120, so quite a strong increase. That was higher than expected, driven by Norway and Chile. In Norway, we saw a 16% increase as we see here. Good growth in sea, more large fish, and some farmers reached their MAB limits. Also, colder temperatures in February and biological challenges led to early harvesting. Chile, plus 8%, as we see here. In Chile, the industry saw early harvests due to the algal bloom and risk mitigation, also harvesting motivated by good prices. And early harvesting and mortality from the algal bloom has limited the biomass available for harvesting in the coming quarters. We see here that biomass is down approximately 21% at quarter year and versus last year. Then we take a look at the volume per market. And COVID-19 continued, of course, to impact trade flows and the market also in Q1. But as we saw some gradual reopenings in certain markets, We saw that the food service demand started to improve in the quarter. So we have a net demand in Q1 approximately neutral in Q1 2021 from pre-COVID-19 levels on a 20% to 25% increase in retail and food service down approximately 40%. So that means that while we had a negative net demand effect in the prior quarters, we now have an approximately neutral effect. Consumption in EU and UK increased 21%, good growth in retail. All in all, we haven't seen much reopenings so far in Europe in food service. Lockdown measures continued into the first quarter, which limited consumption from the food service segment. UK reopened the restaurants for indoor dining on 17th of May. So we will see the effects from that now in the coming time. In the US, we saw an increase in volumes by 11%, continued strong retail sales, gradual improvement in food service. 40% approximately of the population in the US are now fully vaccinated. And further vaccination is expected to continue to reopen food service in the time ahead. And we see that retail is still good for salmon, which is very positive. In Asia, we see here that we had a increase all in all by 6%, good growth in Japan, Korea, also other Asia. In Japan, consumption was strong, increased 24% year over year. Still restrictions on eating out in Japan, but the big sushi chains were not materially affected due to increased takeaway capabilities. In Korea, we also saw good growth, driven by improved retail and also food service demand. Other Asia, mainly due to strong growth in Thailand, Increased demand from retail, also a gradual recovery in the food service segment. We see China, Hong Kong stands out, minus 27% compared with Q1 last year. They are on the road to recovery in China, but still below pre-COVID-19 levels. And we are now currently seeing some more lockdowns in Asia, somewhat more challenging COVID-19 situation in some of the regions in Asia. There might be temporary slowdowns in food service, but that should be positive for retailers. Then we take a look at the price development over the quarter and also continuing into the most recent weeks. If you start with the quarter, then the total effect quarter over quarter was that prices were down, as we have said already, minus 23% in Norway, as we see, minus 7% in Chile, back to plants, adjusted for the higher air freight, and minus 12% in Canada. So this corresponds well with the overall 19% decrease we saw in achieved prices from Moe versus Q1 2020. But we see in the graph here, very positive that prices increased during the quarter. In Europe, we went from a Nasdaq price of 4.4 at the start of the year and ended the quarter at 6.81. So a strong development there, up 50%. We have had a positive development also after the quarter ended. For Canadian origin, we had an impact of COVID-19 lockdown in Canada, but prices have increased in the last weeks. And in Europe and Chile, prices are strong. The figures for Unaberry came in this morning. Canada West, 3.7. Chile, 6.20 to 6.25. So we continue to see a strong development in the American prices. We have a very positive market outlook today. lower supply, continued demand recovery should be a very favorable combination in all regions. Yeah, if you look forward and see how the supply growth is expected to be, then for Q2, as we see here for the second quarter, we expect a negative growth of zero to minus 4%, driven by Chile, They are expected to be reduced by between minus 21% and minus 25%. Norway between plus 4% and plus 7%. And also for the second half, we expect a reduction, negative growth between minus 2% and plus 1%. So in other words, we expect a much tighter market balance going forward. We expect a total 2021 growth of 1% to 4%. I guess the midpoint is around 2.4% here in the numbers. There are some roundings. So a tight market balance as we see it. In Norway, we have indicated a growth of 7% to 9% for the year. In Chile, the expectation is a volume decrease of 14% to 16%. When it comes to our own volume guidance, we maintain our 2021 volume guidance unchanged from the report we issued in the fourth quarter. So with that, we have come to the outlook and the floor is all yours again, Ivan.

Thank you, Christian. Much appreciated. Then it's time to conclude before we wrap it all up with our Q&A session facilitated by our IRO, Kim Dusvig. As said a few times already, we are optimistic about the market prospects going forward. The market is the way we see it on the road to full recovery. Concurrently, we have built new markets gradually during the pandemic, and a recovery of the food service segment after the pandemic we think will only bolster an already strong demand for the Atlantic salmon. Combined with a modest supply outlook for 2021 of 2% and 0% the next 12 months, that bodes well for prices going forward. With Moe's low contract share and integrated value chain, we are in a good position to capitalize on this. In terms of harvest volumes, we maintain our full year harvest guidance of 445,000 tons. And lastly, and as already stated, the Board of Directors has declared an ordinary quarterly dividend of NOC 0.77 per share, equivalent to 50% of underlying earnings per share. Then, Kim, I think we are ready for the Q&A session. If Christian can come up here on the podium. At least one meter from me. Okay, Kim, you're ready.