View of one of Kaldvík's salmon farms in Iceland.
Photo: Kaldvík.
Kaldvík AS reported earnings results for Q2 2024 and six months ended June 30, 2024. Although sales revenues were in both cases well above those recorded in the same periods last year, the Icelandic salmon farmer continued to record operating loss before fair value adjustment of biomass.
In the second quarter of 2024, the company reported sales of NOK 61.95 million (EUR 5.27 million / USD 5.84 million) compared to NOK 20.61 million (EUR 1.75 million / USD 1.94 million) in 2023. However, operating EBIT before biomass fair value adjustment was negative, namely NOK -14.7 million (EUR -1.25 million / USD -1.38 million).
According to Kaldvík's Q2 2024 earnings report presentation, this is mostly due to low harvest volume in the quarter and harvesting and wellboat costs. However, compared to the zero harvest in the same period last year, the company's sea farming operations culminated in a harvest volume of 514 tons in the second quarter, with an average weight of 3.5 kg.
These results, which according to the report are in line with the company's expectations, put the volume harvested in 2024 amounts to 4,500 tons, compared to 4,395 tons for the full year 2023. Group EBIT per kg in Q2 2024 was NOK -28.6 (EUR -2.43 / USD -2.69) versus NOK 7.1 (EUR 0.60 / USD 0.66) in Q1 2024, when the harvested volume was 3,986 tons.
For the six months, total sales revenues were NOK 420.39 million (EUR 35.81 million / USD 39.64 million) compared to NOK 58.02 million (EUR 4.94 million / USD 5.47 million) in the previous year. The net loss was NOK 54.46 million (EUR 4.64 million / USD 5.13 million) compared to NOK 18.15 million (EUR 1.54 million / USD 1.71 million) in H1 2023.
Nevertheless, perhaps the highlight of the second quarter of 2024 for the Icelandic salmon farmer was its decision to change its former name from Ice Fish Farm AS to Kaldvik AS.
"The reason behind that decision was to combine all operations into one new name. Kaldvík means a cold bay. It is more Icelandic origin than the previous name and is in line with other famous names in Iceland such and Reykjavík, Keflavík and Húsavík," the company explained in the report.
Although the name change officially became effective just two weeks ago, on August 15, 2024, the company's ticker had already changed from IFISH to KLDVK at the end of June on both Euronext Growth Oslo and on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Iceland, where the company began trading on May 29, thus obtaining a dual listing.
Regarding the outlook for the remainder of 2024, the company said that, at the end of Q2, it had about 17,000 tons of biomass at sea, and smolt transport was going well. It also added that the expected harvest for the whole of the current year is approximately 17,500 tons, and a greater number and robustness of smolts released at sea is expected this year.
"The ramp up of production through 2024 is 2024 is expected to positively impact our costs our costs per kg. We will be able to better utilize our infrastructure costs," Kaldvík's report read. "If market price for spot salmon is low in Q3 and Q4 then we have MAB capacity to move harvest into Q1 2025."
Kaldvík AS is a holding company within the Icelandic aquaculture sector, with full ownership of Kaldvík hf. (formerly Fiskeldi Austfjarða hf.) and holding a 66.7% share in Búlandstindur ehf. Formerly named Ice Fish Farm AS, it is a pioneer in the Icelandic salmon farming industry.
The company boasts a well-developed, fully integrated value chain that spans from hatchery to sales which enables it to deliver a sustainable, premium product, setting new standards for quality and environmental stewardship in the industry.