Mowi Asa

Good morning, everyone. My name is Iman Windheim. I'm the CEO of Mowi. It's my pleasure and honor to wish you all welcome to the presentation of Mowi's third quarter results of 2021. This time around, the people physically present in the audience. Much appreciated, if I may say so. And yet, another step towards normalization, hopefully. Knock on wood. With me today to walk us through our financial figures and fundamentals, I have, as usual, our CFO, Kristin Ellingson. And after the presentation, our IRO, Kim Dresvik, will routinely host a Q&A session where those of you who are following the presentation on webcast can submit your questions in advance or as we go along by email. Please refer to our website at movi.com for the necessary details. The disclaimer I think we leave for self-study. Then highlights. Overall, the third quarter was characterized by high seasonal supply, particularly from Norway, and a strong demand, partly driven by a pandemic in retreat in many important markets. With this backdrop, Norway recorded record high revenues for a third quarter of 1.035 billion euro, which is also the second best to date. Operation EBIT was 131 million euro, which is in line with the trading update of the 18th of October, up by 64% year over year. Despite the still ongoing pandemic, we have, with minor exceptions, managed to keep our more than 200 farms and 35 factories in 25 countries running normally by means of still maintaining strict biosecurity measures all across our business. At the same time, we also manage to keep our people safe. So, yet again, a big thank you to all our 12,000 employees who have made that happen. It's much appreciated. The increase in profit year-over-year from €80 million to €131 million is mainly explained by higher salmon spot prices, up by 19% in Europe and by 55% in America. Blended farming cost of €4.59 per kilo in the quarter was adversely impacted by biological issues in Canada, amounting to €0.08. We have also started to see that pandemic-driven supply chain disruptions have begun to assert themselves in farming costs. Particularly, feed prices have increased during the year on rising raw material costs and by less accessibility of some input factors. Much to this inflation, though, we believe is driven by transitory factors that will return to normal when normality is restored, whenever that is. Meanwhile, we believe the salmon, with its low feed conversion ratio and traditionally high margin versus other animal proteins, will stand out as a winner, relatively speaking. Nonetheless, as of today, we do not expect higher blended farming costs for the fourth quarter. Feed is the most important input factor in salmon farming, and both feed performance and growth in sea were good in the third quarter and to date for that sake. Further to this, we harvested 117,000 tons in the third quarter, 7,000 tons more than the initial guiding. The positive deviation is related to Norway and good growth conditions. And as a result of this, we have increased our full year guidance from 450,000 tonnes to 455,000 tonnes for 2021, equivalent to a 15,000 tonnes volume growth year over year. For next year, we expect to harvest 460,000 tonnes, adversely impacted by a reduction in our Canadian volumes of 6,000 tonnes. following the phasing out of our Discovery Island operation in Canada West and that we are temporarily holding back on our growth ambitions in Canada East. We will revert to Canada later this morning when we address the various business units. So much about farming for now. For consumer products part, we had yet another good quarter with record high earnings for a third quarter of 21.5 million euro. Driven by good demand, high volumes and improved operations. Feed and feed numbers were relatively good in the quarter, with satisfactory feed production and feed performance. Finally, the Board of Directors has declared an ordinary quarterly dividend of 0.93 NOC per share, equivalent to 50% of underlying earnings per share. And an extraordinary quarterly dividend of 0.47 NOK per share, backed by a strong financial position and a favorable outlook. So, in other words, a total of 1.40 NOK per share in quarterly dividend to be paid out after the third 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, as usual, just touch briefly upon the most important ones now. Turnover of 1.035 billion euro was, as already mentioned, the highest recorded turnover ever for Mowi for a third quarter and the second best to date, equivalent to a top-line growth of 8% year-over-year. This is explained by higher spot prices. Farming volumes are actually down from 126,000 tonnes to 117,000 tonnes. Operation EBIT of €131 million we have already commented on. Cash flow was good in the quarter and net interest paying debt came in at €1.149 billion. well within our long-term target of €1.4 billion. Underlying earnings per share in the quarter was €0.18 and annualized return on capital employed was 12.9%, above the long-term target of 12%. In terms of regional margins through the value chain, they were reasonably good in the quarter, apart from yet again Canada, which broke even in the quarter after a troublesome quarter biologically. We will get back to Canada shortly when we go through the various business entities. But first, prices. As already said, we saw a strong price increase year-over-year in the quarter, driven by good demand and a pandemic in retreat in many markets, up by 19% in Europe and by 55% in America. At the same time, we saw the usual seasonal pressure on prices quarter-over-quarter, driven by high volumes, particularly from Norway. Going forward, we expect better prices on lower season supply and continued strong demand. And I guess I should add yet another time, provided that the pandemic does not take a U-turn. Christian will elaborate more on prices and supply-demand under his session. Then our own relative price performance. Overall, it was satisfactory in the quarter, with a price achievement 3% above the spot price. Particularly Norway and Scotland stand out, with the latter driven by good contracts. Chile and Canada, on the other hand, suffer from downgrading due to biological issues. For Chile's part, related to knock-on effects from last summer's plankton bloom. In addition, contracts weighed on MowiChile's price performance in the third quarter. Then briefly about the EBIT waterfall. Overall, operation EBIT increased from €80 million to €131 million year over year. This was in its entirety driven by increased earnings in farming as a result of higher spot prices. Farming volumes are in the same period down and farming production costs up. Other businesses contributed with €10 million less earnings-wise year over year. Then it's time to address the various business entities, and as usual, we start with the largest and most important one, Mowi Norway. Operation EBIT was 98 million euro in the quarter, up from 67 million euro in the comparable quarter last year. EBIT margin was 1.39 euro per kilo this year, versus 0.87 euro last year, i.e. an improvement of 60% year over year. As the graph clearly demonstrates, this is caused by higher prices. Volumes are down from 76,000 tonnes to 71,000 tonnes, and cost is slightly up. The latter due to less dilution of cost and inflation, because overall biology and production for our Norwegian operation developed positively year-over-year, resulting in improved feed conversion ratios, harvest weights, survival rates and production percentage. Then the different regions in Norway. Margin-wise, it was a mixed bag also this time around. Region North stands yet again out as the margin winner with 1.94 euro per kilo on very low cost, 35 NOK per kilo. Region Mid achieved a margin of 1.10 euro per kilo on slightly higher cost and stable volumes year over year. The split of Region Mid into two new regions, Region West and Region Mid, is now in place and we will report in line with the new structure from the fourth quarter onward. Things take time in salmon farming, so it takes some time before we can expect to see improvements from this restructuring, but we undoubtedly have untapped potential on both cost and MAB utilisation in this important area for Mowi, which we intend to realise. For Region South's part, we harvested a minimum in a quarter in order to grow biomass after a volume-rich first half year. Margin-wise, the third quarter is therefore not very relevant. Region South is back to more normal volumes in the fourth quarter. Then, our Norwegian sales contract portfolio. There are no material changes since last time we met. In the third quarter, contract share was 22% and in line with the guidance, volume-wise. For the fourth quarter, we have contracted 31% of the volumes with prices in the same range as for the third quarter. In terms of next year, I'm afraid we cannot say much today. We are negotiating as we speak. So for competitive reasons, we must keep our cards close to our chest for now and instead revert with an update in connection with our fourth quarter release in February. However, that said, I think we at least can reveal that we expect substantially higher contract prices next year than for this year. And so do you, I presume. Then Scotland. After having a very good first half year biologically, Mowi Scotland sailed into more troubled waters in the third quarter, with sea mass and gill issues, combined with seasonal low oxygen levels in some areas. With this backdrop, Mowi Scotland made an operation profit of 13 million euro versus 6 million euro last year, and EBIT per kilo of 90 euro cent against 35 euro cent last year. Margin improvement is explained by higher prices. Production cost was quite stable. In the fourth quarter, however, production cost is expected to be negatively impacted by lower volumes and that we are harvesting from sites with a higher cost level. Biology and production in Chile, on the other hand, were reasonably good in the quarter after a troublesome first half year for their part due to an unusual warm and dry summer that led to more challenges than normal with oxygen levels and plankton. With this backdrop, MoE Chile turned a profit of 14 million euro in the third quarter versus 9 million euro in the comparable quarter last year. EBIT per kilo was 93 euro cent versus 56 euro cent last year. Chile's margin improvement is also driven by prices. Production cost was adversely impacted by knock-on effects from the already referred to environmental challenges in the first half of the year. Then further north to Canada. More Canada broke even in the third quarter against a loss of 7 million euro last year. And yet again, it was a mixed bag in this business entity. Canada West turned a profit of close to 6 million euro, or 66 euro cent per kilo, versus a loss of 1 million euro last year. Canada West's earnings in the third quarter were negatively impacted by a plankton bloom incident in the Quetzino area on the west coast of British Columbia that cost us more than 5 million euro. X this incident, the Canada West operation margin was reasonably good at 1.30 euro per kilo. Canada East, on the other hand, had yet another disappointing quarter with a loss of close to 6 million euro, heavily impacted by an oxygen drop incident in Bay West in Newfoundland. It's no secret that we have faced a string of unfortunate biological incidents since the takeover of Northern Harvest in 2018, particularly in the Newfoundland area. So it's definitely still a lot left to prove for this business unit. I guess some of you have heard Elon Musk talking about physics is the law and everything else is a recommendation. In salmon farming, biology is the law, figuratively speaking. So, further to this, we are temporarily holding back on our growth ambitions in the Newfoundland area until we have reached a satisfactory stability, both operationally and financially. Growth is one of the three main pillars in Mowi farming, but all things considered, I think holding back in Newfoundland right now is the right course of action in the present state. Then the time has come for Mowi Island and Mowi Faroes. For the salmon of Irish origin, we made an operation EBIT of €4 million. This is slightly down from the €5 million we made last year, driven by lower prices and volumes. Cost on the other hand has improved substantially year over year. Margin-wise, it was quite stable, €1.84 per kilo versus €1.87. In the Faroes, operation EBIT was stable year over year with slightly higher prices and cost, €2.5 million versus €2.3 million. That was all about farming for now. Then over to sales and marketing, and more specifically, consumer products. As touched upon initially, the third quarter was a good quarter for consumer products, with record high earnings for a third quarter of €21.5 million on high volumes, 60,000 tonnes product weight. This was driven by strong demand, partly driven by a pandemic in retreat in many important markets, and an operational efficiency improvement that led to lower operational costs. In general, we see good development in demand in more or less all markets. Then our latest addition to the Moe family, Moe Feed. The third quarter is high season for our feed operation and operation EBIT of 10 million euro and return on sales of 4.7% are positively impacted by that. But compared to last year figures, they are somewhat down owing to fierce competition in the feed market. In terms of operations, both production and feed performance were good in the third quarter. At the same time, I think we must say that the sourcing situation has been more challenging than normal this autumn. And as addressed initially, we see increasing inflation for feed raw materials. The same goes for logistic costs. So the China shipping bottleneck, Brexit, our world economy at full throttle, combined with some crop-specific issues, take that toll on salmon farming too. But as we already have stated, much of this we believe is driven by transitory factors that will return to normal when normality is restored. Dan Christian, the floor is all yours for walking us through the financial figures and fundamentals. Thank you so far.

Thank you very much, Ivan, for a good walkthrough. Good morning, everybody. It's great to see you again in person this time. As usual, we start with the P&L, where the top line shows a record high Q3 revenue of 1.035 billion euro on higher prices. If you look at the year-to-date revenue of 3.1 billion euro and also year-to-date volumes of 351 000 tons, they are all time high and there's a lot of work that is behind actually producing these record high volumes and turning this into profit. So thanks to all our employees for making this possible. Operational EBIT of 131 million euro is up 50 million euro from last year, driven by higher prices. A brief comment on the items between operational EBIT and financial EBIT. Net fair value adjustment of biomass was minus 58 this time around. Impairment losses in Canada have a negative impact of 23 million euro related to the turnaround and revised plans. This is a non-cash impact. results from associated companies that's mainly related to our 49 share in novacy this translates into an operational result of 1.77 euro per kilo which is a good result although somewhat lower than maui region north with 1.94 and this is on somewhat higher cost Net financial items of minus 17 million euro this time around. Interest costs were down. So the movement is related to unrealized currency losses. And of course, the increase in earnings. That's the driver behind the improvement in key financial measures, such as underlying earnings per share, 18 euro cent, operational EBIT margin, 12.6%, and return on capital employed. The latter was 12.9%, and as such, above our target level. We then move on to our balance sheet, where book value of assets is stable from year end 2020, as we see here from the figures. And Moe's financial position is very strong, a covenant equity ratio of as much as 57%, and net interest bearing debt of modest 1.15 billion euros. It was a good cash flow in the quarter, cash flow share of 20 euro cents. Cash flow before dividend paid in the quarter was 100 million euro, minus dividend paid of 98 million euro, means that net interest bearing debt was stable during the quarter. Tie up of working capital, 22 million euro. That was mainly related to increased biomass in sea, partly offset by a released inventory in feed. Sales and marketing was relatively stable. And taxes, positive this time around. That's due to repayments of prepaid tax in Scotland and Canada. And we take the 2021 estimate somewhat down as a result of this. When it comes to the updated cash flow guidance for 2021, the working capital, we expect a large tie-up now in the fourth quarter related to increased biomass and tie-up of accounts receivable. Working capital is, as you know, sensitive to estimate changes, and we have revised the figure somewhat to 80 million euro, down from 110 in the previous guiding. CapEx guidance that's maintained at €265 million, but the risk is on the downside, i.e. underspend. That's due to some capacity pressure in the supply chain related to our ongoing projects as a consequence of COVID-19. But we do not expect any significant delays which will impact our operations. And we have already commented the tax guidance reduced down to 50. The other items are unchanged. The refinancing of the bank syndicate was completed in the third quarter with all formalities in place. Of course, we want to thank our bank syndicate for the good cooperation, good discussions, and we are of course very satisfied with this now being finally in place. We have a very solid financing with no instruments maturing until 2023. The share of green and sustainable financing, we are happy to announce that that is now at 85%, which is a high share. And with regards to sustainability, we continue to make progress on our targets. Year-to-date, our scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 32%, as shown in the upper left graph here. Our production has so far this year accounted for nearly 1.6 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions, compared to producing the equivalent volumes by using a mix of land animal proteins. We are delivering on our sustainability strategy. We are pleased to see that we receive recognition for our work in this area through the various rankings, where Mowi consistently is achieving a very high score. Recently, the Blue Food Assessment was released. This is a collaboration between more than 100 scientists, which are to publish a series of scientific reviews in renowned journals. And this assessment gives very strong and convincing arguments for the importance of producing more food from the ocean. One of the findings was that farmed salmon is preferable to chicken, which, as you know, is considered the most efficient major terrestrial animal source food. But salmon has a more favorable impact on many environmental factors. metrics such as fresh water use, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as a better nutrient profile. And this is, of course, very supportive for us. And we see the strong feed conversion ratio, as Ivan commented upon, with feed price increasing, then salmon is a relative winner, as it's demonstrated here in the table. So the world wants more salmon. That's very good. And the supply increase of 4% was actually more than guided, more harvesting than expected in Norway and Chile. Norway was as much as 15% up on good temperatures, growth, good biological performance, leading to improved weights, and also harvesting more individuals to stay within MAB limits in Norway. Chile, on the other hand, minus 17%, but that was less than guidance, and that was on higher number of individuals being harvested on high prices and after a good quarter with respect to growth. Consumption increased by 6%, so more than the supply increase, and that's related to inventory effects. We had a build-up of frozen inventory last year, but build-down this year. Global blended spot price increased by around 25%, meaning that the value of salmon consumed increased by more than 30% to a new record high level. despite not having fully recovered in all markets. So this is a good story for the salmon. We see that the EU plus the UK increased by 5%. The retail volumes in the main markets in Europe are either stable or increased versus last year's already high level. That's very good. Food service continued to recover, but it's not yet fully back to the pre-pandemic levels in Europe. Russia, relatively stable from Q2, but compared with Q3 last year, consumption was down, as we see here, on low availability of frozen volumes from Chile. Consumption in the US increased by as much as 11%. Retail continued to be strong in the US. And the food service has more or less fully recovered in this market. So we continue to see very good numbers in the US for the market and also for our own consumer products US division. And this volume growth was made possible by a higher share of Chilean volumes going to the US than normal, and also increased imports from Europe, despite the air freight rates still being higher than before the pandemic. We see in Asia a good percentage-wise growth in China from a low Q3 last year. And that's, of course, good that China is on the road back, but it has not yet fully recovered. Export volumes from Norway are at pre-pandemic levels, and we see that consumer confidence has been gradually restored in China, but there are some logistical challenges still, and volumes from Chile to China are down. Yeah, and then some comments on prices. As Ivan commented, European prices up 19% year-on-year and as much as 55% in North America. And particularly strong North American prices are due to a supply reduction from Chile and strong demand. Prices in Canada, we see that from the light gray graph here, somewhat down lately on salmon with low sizes in the market, but we have seen an uptick now in the last weeks. Prices up 19% in Europe, as we said, on very high volumes of Norway in the quarter, so demand was very strong, and the fourth best ever Q3 price-wise in Europe. Volumes in the market for Q4 this year, we expect minus 3% to minus 7% supply change, which gives a total growth for this year of plus 3% to plus 5%. But going forward, we believe in a tight market, and supply growth in the next 12 months is estimated to be 0%. When it comes to our own volumes, the 2021 volume guidance has been increased to 455,000 tons, which is a record high and which is an annual growth of 15,000 tons from last year. 2022 guiding is 460,000 tons. We expect a reduction of Canadian volumes of 6,000 tons related to phasing out Discovery Island operations in Canada West and temporarily holding back on our growth ambitions in Newfoundland, Canada East. With that, it's again over to Ivan for the outlook.

Thank you, Kristian. Much appreciated. Now it's time to conclude with some closing remarks before we wrap it all up with our Q&A session hosted by our IRO, Kim Dusvig. I said a few times already, we are optimistic about the market prospects going forward. Provided that the pandemic does not take a U-turn, we think the market will continue on its road to full recovery. So a good underlying demand combined with lower seasonal supply lay a foundation for good price achievement in the coming months. A global supply growth of 0% the next 12 months underpins that. And with Moe's diverse and integrated value chain, we think we are in a great position to capitalize on this. In terms of harvest volume guidance, we have, as Kristen just showed us, updated slightly this year from 450,000 tons to 455,000 tons on good growth, corresponding to a year-over-year growth of 15,000 tons. Guidance for next year is 460,000 tonnes adversely impacted by a reduction in our Canadian volumes of 6,000 tonnes following the phasing out of our Discovery Island operation in British Columbia and that we are temporarily holding back on our growth ambitions in Newfoundland. And last but not least, the Board of Directors has declared an ordinary quarterly dividend of 0.93 NOC per share, equivalent to 50% of underlying earnings per share, and an extraordinary quarterly dividend of 0.47 NOC per share, backed on a strong financial position and a favorable outlook. So, in other words, in total, 1.40 NOK per share in quarterly dividend to be paid out after the third quarter. Then, I think we are ready for the Q&A session, Kim, so if Christian can please join me on the scene. You're everywhere. Now from the right corner.