Kaldvik AS (KLDVK) Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, everyone. I'm Vidar Aspehaug, and I want to thank you -- no, welcome you to -- please welcome you to the presentation of our third quarter results for 2025. Joining me today is our CFO, Robert Robertsson. And together, we will walk you through the key highlights and developments from the past quarter. After the presentation, we'll open the floor for questions. As before, you're welcome to submit them by e-mail, and you will see the e-mail on screen. You know all this disclaimer. So then we'll go to the agenda. And we will begin with some key highlights from the last quarter, covering operational performance, financial results and strategic updates. Then we will look ahead with a brief outlook and summary before wrapping up with a Q&A session. If you have any questions, please send to robert@kaldvik.is. So starting with some highlights. Throughout the presentation, we have put the respective '24 numbers in brackets behind the '25 numbers to give you some reference. And in the third quarter, we harvested 1,545 tonnes, which is with a group operational EBIT of negative EUR 5 million. The main reasons are high cost due to low utilization of company capacity, a low superior share and the challenging market situation. Concluding Q3, we have harvested a total of 9,163 tonnes so far this year compared to 8,298 tonnes last year. Looking ahead in '25, we're lowering our full year harvest guidance from 18,000 tonnes to 17,000 tonnes. Our harvest guidance for 2026 is at 17,000 tonnes, and I will give you more detail on this later in the presentation. An important milestone for us is that we have completed the transfer of 8.2 million smolt in '25, supporting our long-term goal of producing 30,000 tonnes. Strategically, we have made some original changes in Kaldvik that I will comment on. We have started the test production of sterile fish, and the license that we have been awaiting approval in Seyðisfjörður is still pending. We have also initiated a strategic review of our production model, aiming to reduce risk and improve stability in our operations, and I will comment further on this later in the presentation. So starting with our farming operations. And as mentioned in the Q2 report, we had an incidence this summer with reduced growth and early harvest due to algae in the '23 generation. The same incident resulted in a loss of 900 tonnes in July. On the positive side, and as shown in the figure below, the sea temperatures have been back to normal in '25, supporting better growth compared to '24 when we experienced an unusually low temperature. So at the end of Q3, we had 19,300 tonnes of biomass at sea. This is 3,200 tonnes less than at the same time last year. Then some information on our smolt production and transfer this year. We have, as mentioned, finalized the sea transfer of 8.2 million smolts, finally reaching our target of 7.5 million smolts, 7.7 million smolts of these were produced at our own facilities in North and South and 500,000 were from an external supplier. The average smolt size was 288 grams, a bit smaller than last year, mainly due to an earlier output and external smolt of smaller size. Still, the total biomass of smolt put to sea was 13.7% higher than last year. Transfer mortality has been a major challenge in previous years. And even though it's not great compared to other regions, 93% survival after 60 days at sea is significantly better than our last year's 79% survival rate. Main losses here is related to a few trips with high mortality, and the survival of most trips were significantly higher than the average. Thus, we believe that the investments that we have done in our land sites the previous years are paying off and that we will keep seeing good production of a more robust smolt than previous years going forward. Then to sales and harvesting. In Q3, we harvested 1,545 tonnes, which is 2,250 tonnes less than in the same quarter last year. As we're all aware, there have been and still is a challenging market situation with respect to salmon prices. And despite the low superior share of 65%, 43% of our sales were secured through fixed price contracts, helping on the overall price achievement, ending at EUR 6.3 per kilo. With the limited volumes harvested this year, we have naturally had a high harvest cost of EUR 2.59 per kilo in the last quarter. But for the year-to-date, this is EUR 1.31 per kilo. So that concludes the operational update. And now I'll pass the over to Robert, who will walk you through the financial performance.

Thank you, Vidar. Good morning. I prepared a few slides to walk you through the financial update for the third quarter. First off, you have highlights from the quarter which was marked by limited harvest volumes, suboptimal utilization of our harvesting capacity and a low superior share. As Vidar mentioned, operational EBIT for the group was negative by EUR 5 million, and EBIT per kilo amounted to negative EUR 3.3. Revenues reached approximately EUR 10 million. The price achievement remained stable year-over-year and ended at EUR 6.3 per kilo. This is mainly due to higher ratio fixed price contract, as Vidar mentioned, to the U.S., which made up for low superior shares during the quarter. As demonstrated on previous slide, the limited harvest volumes led to partial utilization of our harvesting facility in Westfjords. Consequently, we experienced increased operational costs during the quarter. Over to the financial summary. Total assets increased by EUR 6 million during the quarter. This was primarily driven by investments in biological assets. Liabilities increased by EUR 16 million, mostly driven by financing of working capital. Equity ratio was 55% at the end of the quarter. Here, you can see analysis of the net interest-bearing debt, which increased by EUR 27 million during the quarter. EBITDA was negative by EUR 2 million. Net investments in working capital amounted to EUR 17.4 million, primarily due to [ BMOs ] built up during the quarter. Total CapEx for '25 is estimated at EUR 15 million, which is lower than the original guidance of EUR 18 million. CapEx investments during the quarter amounted to EUR 3.7 million, making the total CapEx investments year-to-date approximately EUR 12.6 million. And financial items amounted to EUR 3.7 million. The final step in the acquisition process of the box factory was finalized during the quarter with issuance of around 1.6 million shares in Kaldvik at a price of NOK 27.6 per share. The issuance was used to settle the seller's credit from the acquisition of all shares in Mossi ehf from earlier this year. The company Mossi owns the property and building, hosting Djúpskel, the producer of fish boxes in Djupivogur. The new shares were issued to the seller Heimstø AS in September. Heimstø is a close associate to a primary insider of Kaldvik and the biggest shareholder company through its subsidiary, AUSTUR HOLDING AS. Here, you can see the financial calendar for the financial year '25. The management of Kaldvik has decided to change the reporting mechanism from this quarter and onwards. Now we will provide quarterly company updates while financial reports are issued semiannually with our half year and full year reports. Next, company update for fourth quarter is scheduled for February 25, 2026. And the next financial report will be issued for full year 2025 on April 30, 2026. For further information about the financials for the third quarter and year-to-date numbers, please refer to the appendix for the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, statement of changes in equity and share capital and shareholder information. In September, a share repair was carried out with a limited participation. The share repair was executed to ensure that all shareholders have the opportunity to take part in the private placement, which was carried out in June 2025. And finally, an update on the investigation request from a group of minority shareholders related to the acquisition of the previously mentioned box factory and the remaining 33% shares in the harvesting station, Búlandstindur. The transaction was carried out in March this year. The investigation request was initiated last August. And now in October, that Trøndelag District Court decided to not approve the request as the court considered the transaction had been sufficiently documented. The deadline for appeal was yesterday, 20th of November. And as of this moment, I have no further information of whether the minority shareholders have appealed the court decision, but the company will update the market on this matter later on. Thank you. Now I will hand back over to our CEO, Vidar Aspehaug.

Thank you, Robert. Then status on strategic updates. Since I presented the Q2 report shortly after stepping into the role as CEO of Kaldvik, the past months has been focused on gaining a detailed understanding of the company's operations and identifying the areas where we need to strengthen our processes. During this process, we have initiated several operational improvement measures. We have put in place a new and refocused executive management team, and we have established a new operational management group led by our COO, Kjartan Lindbøl, with a clear production focus aimed at improving coordination and reducing biological and operational risk. Also, we have renegotiated the sales agreement with our sales partner, providing an improved price indication and clearer commercial terms. We have also implemented cost reduction initiatives, including organizational adjustments, transferring sales activities to an external partner and other measures to lower the overall cost base. In addition, we have initiated a broader strategic reset. This process will assess the production model with the objective of improving robustness and reducing risk going forward. These initiatives form an important foundation for developing a more predictable and efficient operation, and they will continue to be a key focus area over the coming quarters. So here is the updated management team. And since stepping into the CEO role, the focus has been on strengthening the core of the organization. We have streamlined the management structure to ensure a strong emphasis on production, biological performance and operational execution. The organization is now leaner, which contributes to lower costs and clearer roles. As part of this, we have evaluated our internal functions and decided not to continue with an internal sales department at this stage. Sales activities have been transferred to an external partner, allowing us to concentrate fully on our core business and operational performance. We are also working actively to identify and realize synergies across the company. The objective is to utilize resources more efficiently and support a more integrated and coordinated operation. This management team reflects that focus, clearer accountability, stronger production leadership and an organization aligned with improving biological results and reducing costs. Also, as a new CEO, I want to reset expectations with full transparency. Our objective is to provide guiding that the market can rely on based on realistic biological assumptions, better data quality and clear communication of risk factors. Looking at recent years, we have missed several operational targets, and there are several reasons for this, apart from the fact that aquaculture can be an unpredictable and challenging industry to guide. In Kaldvik, smolt capacity has been challenging with lower releases than planned and survival rates impacted by transfer complications and smolt quality. In addition, production and construction in our land sites has been carried out simultaneously with the challenges that, that gives. These factors have also contributed to weaker performance at sea, and this is not an ideal combination with the demanding Icelandic environmental conditions. So now that we have reached our target production capacity in land, we're optimistic but also respectful that we need to adapt further to the production environment that we are operating in. So to address these challenges, a strategic review is underway with the goal of establishing a more robust and predictable production. And the strategic review of our production model is planned to be finalized by the end of Q1 26, and the outcome may include adjustments to our production strategy. The purpose of the review is to analyze the entire Kaldvik value chain and identify how we best optimize production, utilize license capacity and make effective use of our assets given the specific conditions that we operate in under in Iceland. A key objective is to establish the lowest possible cost of production at an acceptable level of biological and operational risk. And as part of this work, we're evaluating the potential to increase the share of fish grown with only 1 winter at sea. We will be assessing the opportunity to combine external smolt supply with our own in-house smolt capacity, and we are analyzing how harvest capacity and flexibility can be strengthened. The review will give us clearer basis for long-term decisions and support a more robust and predictable production model going forward. Then, a bit on about what to expect going forward. For Q4 '25, we expect to harvest 7,800 tonnes, which is 1,000 tonnes less than needed to reach our originally guided volume totaling 18,000 tonnes for the year. Thus, our new guiding for '25 is 17,000 tonnes. By increasing harvest in Q3 and Q4, we have been aiming to utilize the growth season in Iceland best possible and also to achieve better prices. However, we see now that with challenges with lost harvest days due to weather, delayed stun and bleed vessel and limitations to our well-boat capacity, we will not be able to reach the target of 18,000 tonnes. And as previously said, we're guiding a total harvest of 17,000 tonnes for 2026. So to summarize, I will conclude with the outlook and key points going forward. On the commercial side, our sales agreement has been renegotiated, and we now have a flexible and robust sales partner in place. For '25, our harvest outlook is 17,000 tonnes, adjusted down from 18,000 tonnes. The harvest outlook for '26 is also 17,000 tonnes. The '25 generation smolt cycle has delivered a strong output of 8.2 million smolt and a 93% survival rate. This provides a foundation for our long-term ambition of 30,000 tonnes. The application for a 10,000-tonne license in Seyðisfjörður still remains pending approval. And we have initiated structural and cost reduction measures, supported by a new organizational setup, and the strategic review continues with the objective of optimizing the production model and reducing risk. Overall, these initiatives position us to improve operational stability and hopefully support a more predictable performance going forward. We will conclude our presentation here, and we're now open for questions. And as mentioned initially, please send questions to robert@kaldvik.is. [Break]

Hello. So we have had some questions from you. So the first question is what is the expected superior share for Q4?

Yes, we cannot guide on the superior share for Q4. So...

But we are harvesting the '23 generation. And as we have indicated earlier, we have had some issues with the '23 generation that might affect the superior share in Q4 without giving formal guidance on it. What's the expected contract share for Q4? With increased harvest in Q4? We expect the contract share to lower down to around 20%. How does the '24 generation look compared to the '23 generation? And do you expect lower cost per kilo on that generation? How much lower? So the '24 generation is looking better than the '23 generation. And we expect the cost to be lower for the '24 generation. That being said, we are not giving any guidance on cost per kilo. So -- but '24 is looking better than '23. And '25 is looking better than '24. The generations are benefiting from substantial investments in recent years. So each generation is improving.

Yes.

Yes. Is it possible to quantify the cost initiatives you have conducted so far? Yes, we are quantifying them and keeping a close eye on the cost initiatives. However, we are not going to share any further information on those ongoing initiatives as of now. And what is the average harvest rate in third quarter and your expectations for coming quarters? Yes. So the average rate, it varies between generations, obviously. But we were close to roughly 4 kilos in Q3, wasn't it?

Yes. Yes.