Mowi Asa

Good morning everyone and welcome to the presentation of Movi's third quarter results of 2022. My name is Ivan Vindaham and I'm the CEO of Movi and with me today to present the financial figures and fundamentals I have as usual our CFO Christian Ellingson and after the presentation our IRO Kim Dresvik will routinely host a Q&A session for those who are following the presentation or webcast can submit your questions or comments in advance or as we go along by email. Please refer to our website at movi.com for the necessary details. Disclaimer, I think we leave for self-study as usual. Then we are ready for the key bullet points for the quarter. A quarter I think we can safely say goes down in history as the quarter of contrast, to put it mildly. Because despite another set of new operational records for Mowi, the third quarter of 2022 will unfortunately be remembered for the 28th of September and the Norwegian government's infamous resource-run tax proposal of 40% on Norwegian salmon farming. or 62% including corporate tax and about 80% with Norwegian wealth tax. And then we haven't even included export tax, employers tax, et cetera, et cetera. Needless to say, such a tax level is completely disproportionate for a biological production process such as salmon farming, given the risks entailed. What we do is so different to the oil and hydropower industry than to other resource-rent tax industries in Norway, both from an operational and a risk point of view. This tax level would also totally undermine the investment capacity of the salmon industry and place major limitations on future development on one of the industries we were supposed to live off in this country after the oil age. And in direct contravention of the Norwegian government's rhetoric, it would put thousands of jobs at stake in rural Norway, manifested already in layoffs in the supplier industry. And by extension, we can just wave goodbye to the tens of thousands of new jobs we were supposed to create along the Norwegian coastline in the coming years by growing this industry by more than threefold by 2050. Because these framework conditions are simply not fit for that purpose, as there is no money left to invest with. One cannot have it both ways, no matter what the Norwegian government says. And all this talk about resource-ran tax being neutral in investments is a complete misjudgment based upon stylish assumptions that do not reflect what's happening in the real world. And the greatest fallacy of them all is that is that capital is a non-scarce resource which some theorists for some reason tend to believe, proven by investment projects totaling 35 billion Norwegian kroner already put on hold or terminated as a direct consequence of the tax proposal. And number four is that salmon farming is immovable. With RAS technology, you can farm salmon in all countries in the world. It's just a matter of cost, and tax is a cost like any other cost in the cost basket. Nonetheless, we have far from given up. The proposal is now in a public consultation process until the 4th of January, and we will continue for our part to work with all levels of Norwegian politics and organizations to try and turn this, in our view, anti-business proposal into a viable framework for the salmon industry also going forward. Meanwhile, we have unfortunately been forced to put all new structural investments in MoE Norway on hold until further notice. So much about politics for now, then over to our operations. Turn-wise, the third quarter was the best quarter so far for Mowi, with an operational revenue of 1.26 billion euro. And earnings-wise, it was also a good quarter for Mowi, with an operational profit of 240 million euro. in line with the trading update of the 17th of October and the third best quarter to date. On seasonally strong prices, I would say, driven by a good underlying demand and notwithstanding a global supply growth of 7% year over year for the quarter. in addition to record high farming volumes for Movi of 134,000 tons, which was record high, and slightly above the guidance of 131,000 tons. In terms of foliar guidance for 2022, we maintain it at 460,000 tons, though with increased volumes from Mowi Norway in the wake of a good biomass growth season. Offset first and foremost by Mowi Scotland due to prolonged biological issues there. Christian will get back to the details later, and so will I. For next year, we expect to harvest 470,000 tons, despite the reduction of our Canadian volumes by as much as 16,000 tons year over year. following the loss of our Discovery Island sites in British Columbia in December 2020 and an uneven site mix structure next year. Then the farming costs, i.e. weighted farming costs for our six farming countries was 5.15 euro per kilo in the quarter and relatively stable compared with the second quarter. When it comes to other divisions, Consume Products has delivered another set of great results in the quarter by means of a good operation performance, but also with tailwinds from seasonally lower raw material prices. The feed division, for its part, has delivered both record high volumes and profit on strong demand from Mowi farming. Otherwise, it was with great pleasure we recently entered into an agreement to purchase 51% of the shares in Arctic Fish, one of the leading salmon farmers in Iceland. Iceland was the last missing spot in Moby Farming's geographical footprint, and it's also one of the very few areas left that offer extensive organic growth opportunities. On top of that, Icelandic waters also provide excellent growth and living conditions for the salmon. There's no secret that we have been looking for an entry in Iceland for years, so when we finally got the chance, we were not hard to ask. Last but not least, the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 1.70 NOK per share, which compares to 50% of underlying earnings per share, and as such is in accordance with the dividend policy. That, I think, does it for the key bullet points for the quarter. Then over to key financials. Christian will, as usual, go in depth on financial figures under his session, so to not disrupt the course events, we'll just touch briefly upon the most important ones now. And first turnover, which we already have been through. MoE recorded an operation revenue of 1.26 billion euro in the third quarter, which was record high and up by 21% year over year, on 14% higher farming volumes. Operation EBIT of 240 million euro, we have also already commented on, almost doubled compared with the third quarter last year and the third best quarter to date. Cash flow in the quarter was highly impacted by a tie-up of working capital and capital expenditures. And net interest-bearing debt came in at 1.35 billion euro, within our long-term target of 1.4 billion euro. Furthermore, underlying earnings per share in the quarter was 34 euro cents, and annualized return on capital employed was 21%, well above our long-term target of 12%. In terms of region margins through the value chain, they varied more than normal this time around, and we will get back to the explanation shortly when we go through the various business entities. But first, briefly about the prices. As expected, spot prices in the third quarter corrected down from the second quarter on higher seasonal supply. Having said that, spot prices were still at a reasonably good level in the third quarter, I would say, and In Europe, the prices were actually up by 30% year-over-year. In America, the price development was softer, and the salmon of Chilean origin was stable price-wise year-over-year, whereas the salmon of Canadian origin was down by 11% year-over-year. Then our own relative price achievements. Overall price achievement for Moe was slightly above the reference price in the quarter. I mean, so good price achievement for all our fish, apart from Canary East, where we harvested out some Isar fish in the quarter. So Perisher was also very good in the third quarter. Done briefly about the EBIT waterfall. Overall, operation EBIT increased from 131 million euro to 240 million euro year over year. driven by increased earnings in farming as a result of higher prices and volumes. But also the other businesses contributed positively this time around with good operational results across the board. Then it's time to address the various business entities. And as usual, we start with Moe Norway, our largest and most important one by far. Operation EBIT for Moe Norway in the quarter was 222 million euro, which is the second best quarter ever, and up from 98 million euro last year. EBIT margin was 2.53 euro per kilo. versus 1.39 euro per kilo last year. And as the graph clearly demonstrates, this was caused by higher prices and volumes. Cost on the other hand was up a year over year due to mainly inflation and then feed inflation. Because our overall operation performance has been good in Norway this year, and by extension, we have upped our full year guidance for 2022 from 272,000 tons to record high 286,000 tons, and further to 290,000 tons next year. As late as 2017, we harvested 210,000 tons in Moe Norway, which means that we have grown Moe Norway by as much as 76,000 tons, or 6.4% annually, over the past five years. And by that, putting Moe Norway towards the top of license utilization and production efficiency in Norway. So, kudos to the organization for this achievement. It's of course much appreciated. Then it's time to address the various margins in Norway, so for the different regions. Margin-wise, it was much flatter than normal this time around. Having said that, Sweden North stands yet again out as the margin winner with 2.83 euro per kilo on lowest cost. Oil cost was adversely impacted by inflation and a less favorable site mix. year over year with a higher proportion from production area of seven this year. Closely followed by region mid with a margin of 2.62 euro per kilo and region west with 2.40 euro per kilo. Region south for its part achieved a margin of 2.16 euro per kilo and improved by that. I think someone has to get up. Region South, for its part, achieved a margin of 2.16 euro per kilo in the third quarter and improved by that its relative position year-over-year on significantly higher volumes. Oil cost was adversely impacted by challenging environmental conditions for our agro-sites in production area 1. Then our Norwegian sales contract portfolio. In the third quarter, we yet again capitalized on being in the lower end of our contract policy, as spot prices also for this quarter were higher than the prevailing contract price or prices, this time around with a contract share of 22% for our part. However, at this time of year, the big elephant in the room is, of course, contracts for next year. And to call a spade a spade, the government's infamous resource-rent tax proposal, as it stands, has unintentionally, I assume, pulled the rug under the contract market for the Norwegian salmon next year, as the proposal applies the Nasdaq price as the tax settlement price. This is double unfortunate because firstly, the non-stock price doesn't really exist. It's also higher than the relevant spot price for the farmer. Secondly, and maybe even worse, the spot price may also differ significantly from the prevailing contract price. Refer instance, the second quarter this year when the spot price went through the roof. One by one toxic and combined completely devastating. So it's paramount to sort this one out quickly. We don't have time to wait for the consultation process to conclude on this one. Meanwhile, the contract market for the Norwegian salmon is, excuse me my language, dead for all practical purposes. Then it's time to address the other farming countries and as usual we start with Mowi Scotland. Nothing is as sure as things fluctuate in salmon farming. Biology is the law and everything else is just a recommendation. After an impressive last year for Mowi Scotland, the biological challenges seem to have no end this year for our solely tried Scottish organisation. No sooner had we harvested out the poor-performing externally genetic source stocks than we ran into severe issues in or around Skye and in the Western Isle due to micro jellyfish, which caused some elevated mortalities in some of our farms. This resulted in a soft operation EBIT from Moe Scotland in the third quarter of 4 million euro, down from 13 million euro last year. notwithstanding substantially higher prices. Also manifested in a drop in EBIT per kilo from €0.90 to €0.29. Volumes, on the other hand, were stable at 14,000 and 15,000 tonnes. Things are now under reasonably good control in Moway, Scotland, but unfortunately this will impact our cost and volume figures for the fourth quarter as well. In the case of the latter, as we prioritise biomass growth going forward. Our guidance for Mowing Scotland is therefore taken down this year from 60,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes. But next year we expect to be more or less back on track and we have guided approximately 65,000 tonnes. Then Chile. More with Chile, so increased earnings and margins. Here we are in the quarter on higher prices and volumes, partly offset by cost due to inflation. In terms of numbers, operation profit was 22 million euro this year versus 14 million euro last year, and the margin was up from 0.93 euro per kilo to 1.27 euro per kilo. Volumes are also up, as said, from 15,000 tons to 17,000 tons. In general, both production and biology were good in Mowi Chile in the quarter. Then far enough to Mowi Canada. Mowi Canada made a loss of €4 million in the third quarter against a breakeven result last year. This was driven by lower prices as cost is actually somewhat down year over year. Volumes on the overhand were stable at 11,000 tons. In Canada West, we achieved an operational profit of €7.5 million or €0.78 per kilo, which is an improvement from last year, where we made €5.6 million or €0.66 per kilo. As far as Canada East is concerned, we harvested very low volumes in the third quarter, and on top of that, they were related to ISA fish at both high costs and low prices, in addition to a low dilution of costs in general. In terms of overall biology for Canada East, it has improved this year compared with previous years, and in particular the life situation is good this year, or has been good this year, knock on wood. And the work on reducing our cost baskets continues in full force. Then it's time to address our two smallest farming entities, Mowi Ireland and Mowi Faroes. For the salmon of Irish origin, we made a loss of €3 million in the quarter following previously announced issues with pancreas disease compounded by compromised gill pathology due to micro jellyfish, the same species as for Scotland, Myggia atlantica. Biology is now under control, but this will unfortunately impact our fourth quarter numbers as well, though not to the same extent as for the third quarter. In Moe Faros, operation EBIT came to 2 million euro by means of a margin of 1.06 euro per kilo on 1,700 tons harvest volumes. So much about Moe farming, then over to Moe consumer products. Consumers made an impressive operation profit of €30 million in the third quarter, up from €22 million last year on higher margins, both in total and for value added only, by means of a strong operation performance in addition to tailwinds from seasonally lower raw material prices. Volumes, on the other hand, were down from pandemic-boosted 60,000 tons project weight last year to 56,000 tons project weight this year. In terms of overall demand, it was reasonably good in more or less all markets in the quarter. And we also see reasonably good development in demand so far in the fourth quarter, notwithstanding the global economic slowdown. Then our latest addition to the Moe family, Moe feed. The third quarter is high season for Moe feed, where all that entails. And as said initially this morning, we can put behind us a quarter with record high feed volumes and feed profit on strong demand from Moe farming. As the current capital expenditures are limited in feed compared to farming, our key metric on earnings in feed is EBITDA. And operation EBITDA was 19 million euro in the third quarter versus 14 million euro last year. And sold volumes were 169,000 tons this year versus 156,000 tons last year. Feed performance was also very good in the third quarter, which is, of course, of utmost importance to us. Then, Christian, the floor is all yours for walking us through the financial figures and fundamentals. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Ivan. My name is Christian Ellingson. Good morning, everybody. Hope everybody is doing well. As usual, we start the session on financials and fundamentals with the statement of profit and loss. And we see that the top line shows a record high revenue of 1.26 billion euro in the third quarter. This was an increase of 21% from Q3 last year on all-time high volumes and increased prices from the comparable quarter. Operational EBIT, 240 million euro, that's up 84% from Q3 last year, driven by the farming segment and with a corresponding increase in underlying earnings per share, 34 euro cent, and return on capital employed, 21.4%. When it comes to the items between operational EBIT and financial EBIT, the net fair value adjustment was negative this time around, driven by lower prices at the end of Q3 versus end Q2. Other non-operational items include the gain of €22.5 million on sale of unused development licenses. When it comes to associated companies, the operational result from our associated company NovaSea was Euro 2.55 per kilo. That was a good margin for NovaSea, but somewhat below Norway region mid and also region north in Q3 and not far away from Norway region west. Net financial items negative 33 million euro in the quarter. Interests as expected, so this was related to unrealized currency losses on hedges and working capital items. And the key figures are positively impacted by the increased earnings. That's very good. And we also see that the net cash flow per share is impacted by a working capital tie-up, which we will come back to shortly. So that figure ended at 2 cents. Yes, so then we move on to the financial position. The balance sheet for Moe remains very solid versus year-end. There are some increases on both current assets and liabilities, while fixed assets are relatively stable. Covenant equity ratio somewhat up from year-end and is 55.4%. When it comes to the cash flow, we see that net interest-bearing debt increased by €116 million in the period, including a dividend payment for Q2 of €122 million. There was a working capital tie-up of €151 million in the quarter, mainly due to biomass and seed, feed inventory and consumer products. Other investments and dividends received include the proceeds from the sale of unused development licenses. The other items were as expected. And then when it comes to the cash flow guidance for the year as a whole, we increased the estimate for working capital tie-up to €350 million. But approximately half of this is related to temporary elevated working capital build-up related to inventory, accounts receivable, etc. And that's expected to be released next year. Then the other half is mainly related to volume increase in C and cost inflation. Also parts of the cost inflation is temporary as we see it. CapEx guiding unchanged at 300 million euro. Projects already initiated will continue. But the proposal for the resource rent tax means that we have to put all new structural investments on hold until further notice. Interest paid and taxes also unchanged at 35 million and 130 million euro respectively. And the dividend for Q3 of NOC 1.7 per share will be paid in the fourth quarter. Then we take a look at the financing and there are no changes with regards to our existing debt instruments. We have a very solid and good financing in place for MAUI. Then we move over to market fundamentals. We start with the supply and global supply, as we see here, increased by 7% in the third quarter versus Q3 last year. That was somewhat above the guiding of between minus 1% to 2%. That was the guiding. The increase was driven by Chile, as we see here. Chile was up 26%, where the companies harvested more than expected due to biological challenges mainly related to SRS. But average rates were also good in Chile, indicating that opening biomass was probably higher than the initial estimates. Closing biomass in Chile is estimated to be 8% down compared to Q3 last year, and that indicates then of course reduced volumes from Chile going forward. In Norway the closing biomass is stable from last year, indicating that growth also from Norway will be rather limited. We will come a little bit back to that. Then we move over to consumption in the various markets. And you can start with the value of the salmon consumed in the third quarter. That increased by as much as 25%, with 4% higher volumes, 21% higher blended prices. and in Europe retail sales were somewhat down from a high level during the pandemic but still higher than pre-pandemic levels and the food service segment continued to improve so demand has been good in the quarter and so far we would say that the salmon has performed well even though the economic climate has become more challenging. When it comes to the U.S., this market continues to grow, as we see here. Good figures. Annual consumption approaches 600,000 tons in the U.S., and we saw a 7% consumption growth in the third quarter. Asia saw an increase in some markets as pandemic related restrictions were relaxed. But in general, the Asian market is impacted by still high air freight rates. And then there was a difference between supply and consumption of approximately 18,000 tons, mainly due to frozen inventory buildup in Chile. So that's approximately the same level as last year. So nothing of particular interest as we see it. We saw a seasonal decline in prices during the quarter compared to the very high prices we saw in the first half of the year, driven by increased supply. But compared with Q3 last year, prices were up 30% in Europe on improved demand. The Chilean prices were relatively stable and improved demand, but high supply. And the Canadian prices were impacted by a record high wildcatch of sockeye at the start of the quarter and then generally increased volumes into the North American market during the third quarter. When it comes to industry supply growth, this slide indicates that growth is expected to be very modest. 0% for 2022, 1% for the fourth quarter this year, and also 1% for 2023. 2023 has been revised down following the resource rent tax proposal and unsold MAB capacity in Norway. And we expect this picture really to remain in the coming years. So the growth for the industry has been impacted by this proposal and the halt in investments. And when it comes to our own volumes, we maintain the guidance for 2022, as Ivan said, at 460,000 tons. But we have done some changes within the group, between the entities. Norway increased by 14,000 tons to 286, and Scotland down 10,000 tons. In 2023, the guidance is 470,000 tons, including a reduction of 16,000 tons in Canada compared to 2022. That's related to Canada West and the loss of licenses in the Discovery Island area and this stocking pattern. Canada West is expected to stabilize around 25,000 tons from 2024 onwards, and long-term volumes in Canada East should be around 50,000 tons with the current site structure. So then I leave the word to you, Ivan, to look at the outlook slide.

Thank you, Kristian, and much appreciated. Then it's time to conclude. Some closing remarks before we wrap it all up with our Q&A session hosted by our IRO, Kim Dusvik. As already said, yet another record high quarter for MAUI was unfortunately completely overshadowed by the infamous resource-run tax proposal by the Norwegian government. This would obviously be a game changer for industry and more we alike. There's no doubt about that if it's put in action. Having said that, I simply cannot believe that the consequences are fully understood by the lawmakers. So let's see what we can achieve by appealing to reason. We will therefore use the public consultation process for our part to continue to work with all levels of Norwegian politics and organizations to try and turn this, in our view, anti-business proposal into a viable framework for the salmon industry also going forward. Meanwhile, we have unfortunately been forced to put all new structural investments in MoE Norway on hold until further notice. So much about politics. In terms of fundamentals, they appear reasonably good or attractive going forward in our view. The supply side looks very constrained, but in practice no growth next year or in the coming years for that matter. And salmon normally fares well in challenging economic times. With our continued reasonably good demand, this should lay the basis for a tight market balance also in the time ahead. That's at least our main scenario for now. In terms of harvest volume guidance for 2022, we have, as Christian just showed us, maintained it at 460,000 tonnes, though with a reshuffling of volumes where we are guiding more Norway up and more Scotland and more Chile down. For next year, we expect to harvest 470,000 tons, despite a reduction of Canadian volumes by as much as 16,000 tons year over year. Then Iceland. As said earlier this morning, it was with great pleasure we recently entered into an agreement to purchase 51% of the shares in Arctic Fish, one of the leading salmon farmers in Iceland. Iceland was the last missing spot in Mowi Farming's geographical footprint and is also one of the very few areas that still offer extensive organic growth opportunities. So this is really a good news story for us and we are looking forward to further develop the company together with the other owners and a highly competent organization. Finally, the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 1.70 NOK per share, which is equivalent to 50% of underlying earnings per share. Thank you. I think we are ready for the Q&A session. So if you, Christian, can please join me on the stage.