MHGVY (MHGVY) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

I think that sets the mood. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of Mowi's First Quarter Results of 2026, both to those of you physically present in the room here this morning at The Salmon, our combined exhibition center and fish restaurant at Aker Brygge in the heart of Oslo, and to those of you following the presentation online across the world. And to those of you physically present in the room, I hope you have all settled in well, had something to drink and grabbed a bite to eat, a bite of some of our delicious Mowi salmon. And to those of you following the presentation online, I hope you have made yourself comfortable, so you can follow along at your leisure. Otherwise, my name is Ivan Vindheim, I'm the CEO of Mowi. And together with our CFO, Kristian Ellingsen, I will take you through the numbers and the fundamentals this morning, and to the best of my and our ability, add a few appropriate comments to them. And after presentation, our IRO, Kim Dosvig, will routinely host a Q&A session. So those of you who are following the presentation online can submit your questions or comments in advance or as we go along by e-mail. Please refer to the website at mowi.com for the necessary details. Disclaimer is both long and extensive. So I think we leave it for self-study as we usually do. So with the pleasantries, the practicalities, and the disclaimer out of the way, I think we are ready for the highlights of the quarter. A quarter which was characterized by very high industry supply growth of 14% when adjusted for inventory drawdowns during the quarter, validated by an exceptionally good growth in the sea last year, but I think it's fair to say that this year is off to a good start as well in terms of seawater growth, although we haven't reached the high growth season yet. And an industry supply growth of 14% is, of course, much more than any market can handle in the short term without it showing up in prices. This also goes for the salmon end market. So this took its toll on prices in the quarter, especially in the first part of the quarter, before we saw an upswing in prices towards the end of the quarter on Easter demand. And so overall, that translated into an operational profit of EUR 221 million, which is our second best first quarter to date and a turnover of seasonally record high EUR 1.54 billion, thanks to, first and foremost, seasonally record high harvest volumes of 136,000 tonnes, which is up by a whopping 26% year-over-year, which is slightly higher than our original guidance. Otherwise, our realized blended farming cost was good in the quarter, i.e., our realized production cost for 7 production countries. And as I said, it was good in the quarter at EUR 5.46 per kilo, which is just slightly higher than the fourth quarter, notwithstanding lower harvest volumes and consequently, less dilution of fixed costs in addition to issues with algae in Southern Norway in the quarter, which cost us approximately EUR 10 million or EUR 0.07 per kilo. EUR 5.46 per kilo is also down from EUR 5.89 per kilo in the first quarter last year, so down by 7.3% year-over-year or EUR 46 million in absolute terms, which is a significant amount also for Mowi. And to this, it can be added that our biological metrics are either better or on par with last year, which was also a good quarter for Mowi Farming. So I think it's fair to say that this year is off to a good start for our farming operation despite our issues with algae in Southern Norway in the quarter, which are now behind us. As for the second quarter, we expect our realized blended farming cost to be stable quarter-over-quarter before declining further in the second half of the year, partly aided by more harvest volumes and consequently, more dilution of fixed costs. Carrying on, when it comes to 2 other divisions, the first quarter is low season for our Feed business and all that entails. So our numbers in the quarter in Feed are a reflection of that. As for Consumer Products, our earnings in the quarter are substantially lower than the first quarter last year. But when adjusting for weaker contracts year-over-year, they're actually better. And then the second to last bullet point, Torghatten Aqua. We bought Torghatten Aqua's 4,500 tonnes sea-based salmon farming operation or business in Northern Norway in the quarter at very attractive terms, I would say. So this would be a nice little bolt-on to Mowi Norway region North and perhaps one of the best places in the world for farming of Atlantic salmon. And then finally, as the last bullet point reads, our Board of Directors have decided to distribute a quarterly dividend of NOK 2.30 per share after the first quarter. I think that does it for the highlights of the quarter. So then we can move on to our farming volume guidance. And to begin with, as we can see from the chart here, we maintain our guidance for this year of 605,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to a growth of as high as 8.3% year-over-year, mainly driven by the acquisition of Nova Sea last year. And furthermore, we uphold our 2029 organic farming volume target of at least 650,000 tonnes. And the latter, we will achieve through increased smolt stockings and by means of post-smolt, among other things, because we still have unutilized license capacity in Mowi in several of the countries where we operate. And with post-smolt, we can increase the productivity on licenses already in operation or to be set into operation. So Mowi's farming volume growth continues unabated after the rather stagnant 2010, and is surpassing that of the wider industry and our listed peers by a large margin, cementing our #1 position in the market for the Atlantic salmon. Then from the overall volume picture to key financial figures for the quarter. There are a lot of numbers on this slide. So I think we will have to focus on the most important ones now and leave the rest for later and Kristian's session. And then we also avoid to get ahead of the event. And turning to profits, we have just been through. So I think we can skip them here. So let's go straight to cash and net interest-bearing debt, which stood at EUR 2.74 billion at the end of the quarter, which is in line with our long-term debt target of EUR 2.7 billion, supported by strong equity ratio at the end of the quarter of 46%. Furthermore, underlying earnings per share was EUR 0.27 in the quarter, whilst annualized return on capital employed was 13.1%. And finally, in terms of our regional margins through the value chain, there was quite a wide spread in the field this time around, and we will get back to all the details shortly when we go through the different business entities. But first, on prices in the quarter. And as I said, the quarter was characterized by very high industry supply growth of 14% when adjusted for inventory drawdowns during the quarter, well aided by an exceptionally good growth in the sea last year. But also I think it's fair to say that this year is off to a good start as well in terms of seawater growth, although we haven't reached the high growth season yet. And 14% industry supply growth is, of course, much more than any market can handle in the short term without it impacting prices, and the salmon market is no exception to the rule. And this impacted prices this winter, and also so far this spring, along with tariffs and turmoil in the Middle East. But on a positive note, industry supply growth has now finally normalized after an unprecedented year and we'll be hovering around 0% for the remainder of this year and 1% next year according to the research agency, Kontali. And this should, under normal circumstances, pave the way for a tighter market balance going forward than what we have seen lately. And limited supply growth is also something we expect to see in the coming years due to regulatory and associated technological constraints. But the latter must be understood in context with the former and not vice versa, which is an important distinction in this. So this will be interesting to follow and in more than one way, I would say. Then our own price performance in the quarter, which I would say was okay, as it was 4% above the reference price, which is the standard we like to hold ourselves to internally and against which we measure ourselves, as you can hear. This time around, positively impacted by contract share of 21% in the quarter and a small positive contribution to our earnings from them in addition to good quality of our fish, which is an important element in this. So with that, I think we're ready to start to drill down into the different business entities. And we begin as usual with Mowi Norway, our largest and most important entity by far and the locomotive of our business model. And if you take the numbers first, operating profit was EUR 181 million for Mowi Norway in the quarter, whilst margin was EUR 2.40 per kilo and harvest volumes seasonally record high 76,000 tonnes. It has had rather troublesome quarter biologically for our southernmost operations in Norway due to issues with algae, so-called Pseudochattonella, but these are now over, which cost us approximately EUR 10 million in the quarter or EUR 0.13 on our Norwegian volumes. Other than that, I would say our biological performance in Norway was strong in the quarter. And to this, it can be added that our biological metrics were either better or on par with last year, which was also a good quarter for us in Norway. And we can also see from the chart here that our cost is down year-over-year, which is often a good signal of good biological performance. And especially in northern Norway, we continue to perform extremely well, which translated into an impressive margin of EUR 2.89 per kilo for Mowi Norway Region North, which is by far our largest and consequently our most important entity in Mowi Norway. So hats off for that. But I will also say that our overall margin for Mowi Norway in the quarter, EUR 2.40 per kilo, is reasonably good, all things considered. Then the volume guidance for Mowi Norway. We maintain our guidance for this year of 380,000 tonnes, which translates to a growth of as high as 14.5% year-over-year, mainly driven by, as I said, the acquisition of Nova Sea last year. But our short-term goal on the Norwegian assets is, of course, 400,000 tonnes, which we hope to reach soon and which will be our next volume milestone in Mowi in Norway. Then the last slide on Mowi Norway, our sales contract portfolio. Contract share was 19% for Mowi Norway in the quarter and was with that spot on our guidance. And these contracts made a small positive contribution to our earnings in the quarter. As for the second quarter, we expect our contract share to be relatively stable with relative stable contract prices quarter-over-quarter. So with that, I think we can conclude Mowi Norway and move on to our 6 other farming countries. And we begin, as usual, with Mowi Scotland. Mowi Scotland delivered another good quarter biologically, I would say, partly aided by very favorable seawater temperatures in Scotland this winter and spring. And this manifested itself in an operational profit of EUR 31 million for our Scottish operation in the quarter, representing a margin of EUR 1.49 per kilo on our seasonally record high harvest volumes of almost 21,000 tonnes. Mowi Chile also continued to deliver good biological quarters, especially considering that we have been through a summer in Chile in the first quarter, and this led to costs in Mowi Chile in the quarter on par with Mowi in Norway. But soft prices as a result of an unprecedented high industry supply growth out of Chile in the quarter of 25% ate, unfortunately, heavily into our earnings in the quarter and left us with a modest operational profit of EUR 7 million and a modest margin of EUR 0.34 per kilo on our seasonally record high harvest volumes in Mowi Chile of 21,000 tonnes. Mowi Canada also wrestled with soft prices in the first quarter and even more so as our cost level in Canada is higher than in Chile, although it was good by Canadian standards in the first quarter. And this resulted in a small loss of EUR 1 million for our 8,000 tonnes of harvest volume in Canada in the quarter. On the positive side, biology was once again good in Canada in the quarter, both in the West and in the East. And soft prices were also a running theme in Ireland in the quarter, which translated into a breakeven result there on our 2,000 tonnes of harvest volume in an otherwise good quarter for our Irish operation biologically. In Faroes, however, we made an operational profit of EUR 3 million in the quarter on our 3,000 tonnes of harvest volume there, representing a margin of EUR 0.93 per kilo, which is a lower margin than what we normally see in the Faroes with current prices due to, first and foremost, a very front-end loaded harvest profile, as we did not harvest at all in March when prices were at their highest. Otherwise, biology was once again good in the Faroes. Then further out into the Atlantic Ocean to Iceland and Icelandic farming operation, Arctic Fish. Arctic Fish turned a profit of EUR 2 million in the quarter on our 6,000 tonnes of harvest volume, thanks to lower cost year-over-year, as we can see from the chart here. So I think we can say that our work on cost in Iceland has started to bear fruit. But our price performance in the quarter was not satisfactory, mostly explained by harvesting out a site with low superior share. But also I think it's fair to say that we are not satisfied with our price performance in general in Iceland as we see that we achieve a lower price for our Icelandic salmon than what we do for our other origins. So we have a job to do in Iceland. So with that, I think we can conclude Mowi Farming and move on to Consumer Products, our downstream business. Consumer Products made an operational profit of EUR 20 million in the quarter, which is, as I said, significantly down from the EUR 33 million we made in the comparable quarter last year. But when adjusting for weaker contracts year-over-year, the first quarter this year is actually better. So I think it's fair to say that our underlying operational performance in our downstream business was good in the quarter. We also continue to see good demand for our products, underpinned by seasonally record high sold volumes of 70,000 tonnes product weight, which is up by as much as 21% year-over-year. Proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. Then last one out this morning, Mowi Feed. As said, the first quarter is low season for our Feed business and all that entails. So our numbers in the quarter reflect that. And following on from this, operational EBITDA was stable year-over-year at EUR 6 million on stable sold volumes of 109,000 tonnes. But now our expansion of the feed factory in Bjugn is finished, which will provide the basis for further organic growth also in this part of the value chain. So this year, we aim to produce and sell 650,000 tonnes of feed, which is up by as much as 11% year-over-year. I can also inform you that our recently commenced partnership with Skretting is progressing well with targeted EUR 55 million in annual savings. So with that, Kristian, the floor is all yours, so you can take us through the financial figures and the fundamentals. Thank you so far.

Thank you very much, Ivan, and good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. As usual, we start with the overview of profit and loss, which shows record first quarter revenue achieved on historically high seasonal volumes. Operational EBIT increased by 3% on higher volumes and lower costs, partly offset by lower prices on very high seasonal industry supply. Operational EBIT and financial EBIT were relatively similar this time around, and financial items were relatively stable from Q1 '25. Earnings translated into underlying earnings per share of EUR 0.27, while cash flow per share was affected by working capital, tax and CapEx payments. We then move on to the balance sheet, which is slightly up since year-end. Mowi has a solid financial position with equity ratio of 46%. The cash flow contribution from EBITDA was partly offset by working capital tie-up, CapEx and phasing of taxes. Other investments are mainly related to payment of the remaining shares in Nova Sea, and financial items were relatively stable. Net interest-bearing debt per quarter end was EUR 2.74 billion, which is in line with the long-term NIBD target. And we maintain the 2026 cash flow guidance, which we presented in Q4. So we do not go further into the specifics on this slide. On financing, Mowi has 100% green or sustainability-linked financing, but there are no new instruments or loans since Q4. So we leave this for self-study. But note that we have a euro financing, and that is because our cash flow is predominantly in euro. So for Mowi, cash flow, financing and reporting is based on euro, which is our functional currency. And euro interest rates have been consistently lower than Norwegian rates as demonstrated in the graph. And the difference is currently 2.2 percentage points. This gives Mowi a lower financing cost and thereby lower weighted average cost of capital. When it comes to operational costs, this was good in the quarter with blended farming cost across our 7 farming countries of EUR 5.46 per kilo. That's down 7.3% from EUR 5.89 in Q1 '25. In nominal terms, the reduction was EUR 46 million. And cost was also down versus the overall level in 2025. The reduction was driven by feed prices, but other cost items are also improved. Cost in the first half of this year is, as usual, impacted by lower volumes and negative scale effects, but we expect reduced costs in the second half of 2026. And as you know, we have worked systematically on cost for several years. I believe we have a very good track record in this area. Over time, this makes a difference. And if you look at the cost reduction in Q1, 20% of this cost reduction is related to other items than feed. The EBIT per kilo overview for the last 3 years show that we have the #1 position on EBIT in all regions and cost is the main driver behind being the #1 performer across these regions. In the current inflationary environment, we work along 2 lines. First, we have the operational improvements, and then we have the more generic work, including the cost reduction program and the productivity program. So this work continues unabated in Mowi, and we have a strong focus on cost and cost leadership. Another way of measuring profitability is to look at EBIT per standard license in Norway. This captures both profitability and also license utilization. Mowi performs strongly on both benchmarks, resulting in the #1 position for Norway combined and also in each of the regions. And Region West and Mid is consolidated here due to the interregional biomass. Profitability is, of course, extremely important, but perhaps even more important is what kind of return this profitability gives on the invested capital. And Mowi's return on capital employed is consistently better than our peer group, around 5 percentage points better over time. The average 5-year return on capital for Mowi is 17.4% versus peers at 12.7%. So Mowi is more capital efficient. If you go a bit further into cost, the single largest cost component is feed. And there has been a positive development for feed prices in 2023 to 2025 on better availability of raw materials and generally lower ingredient prices. The positive development in those years started with vegetable ingredients and then continued with marine ingredients. Also in 2025, we saw lower feed prices. And due to the production cycle, this benefits P&L feed cost now in 2026. However, in 2026, prices for marine ingredients have increased related to lower supply. But Mowi expects that our feed prices will be relatively stable in Q2, Q3 versus the first half due to purchases already made in addition to positive effects from the Skretting partnership. Price development further ahead is too early to say. The increase in fish oil prices in '26 is, amongst other things, affected by concerns related to the anchovy fishery in Peru. On the first fishery season, it's still too early to conclude how this will turn out and the quota for the second season towards the end of the year will be based on a trial catch expected in Q3. We then move on to market fundamentals, starting with supply. Industry supply increased by 14% year-on-year in Q1 adjusted for inventory movements. This was driven by a temporary high supply growth from Norway and Chile. On 14% increased consumption, demand increased by 7% year-on-year in Q1, adjusted down for tariffs. In Europe, consumption increased by 11%, driven by retail, supported by 4% lower retail prices. In the U.S., consumption increased by 5%. In this market, we saw continued good growth in the fresh prepacked category in retail and e-commerce, but slower in foodservice. In Asia, consumption increased by as much as 42%, supported by improved availability, continued strong demand. Growth was particularly good in China with 60% growth in the quarter versus Q1 last year, where retail, e-commerce and hybrid channel continue to support this shift towards more home consumption in China. And of course, the very high supply growth that we saw took its toll on prices, but the tighter supply outlook would normally mean improved market conditions. And following no industry supply growth in 2022, '23, '24, the number climbed to 12% in 2025 on biological improvements and higher temperatures. And in Q1, we saw a very high supply growth of 14%. And this figure is expected to be 0% for the rest of 2026 and 1% in 2027 according to Kontali. From 2028 onwards, we expect 1% to 2% supply growth for the industry, i.e., lower than the average 3% seen in the previous 10 years. When it comes to Mowi's own volume guidance, we maintain this at 605,000 tonnes for 2026. And Mowi has a history of delivering on our volume guidance with positive deviation of 2% over the last 5 years versus peers at negative deviation of 6%. So we have a good track record when it comes to our forecasting. That was the last slide of my part of the presentation, and I will now hand over to Ivan.

Thank you, Kristian. Much appreciated. And it's time to conclude with some closing remarks before we wrap up with our Q&A session hosted by our IRO, Kim Dosvig. And to begin with, and I said earlier this morning, the first quarter was characterized by very high industry supply growth of 14% when adjusted for inventory drawdowns during the quarter, validated by an exceptionally good growth in the sea last year. We also think it's fair to say that this year is off to a good start as well in terms of seawater growth, although we haven't reached the high growth season yet. And an industry supply growth of 14% is, of course, much more than any market can handle in the short term without it showing up in prices. And this also goes for the salmon market. So this has taken its toll on prices this winter and spring, along with tariffs and turmoil in the Middle East. But on a positive note, industry supply growth has now finally normalized after an unprecedented year, and we'll be hovering around 0% for the remainder of this year and 1% next year according to the research agency, Kontali. And this should, under normal circumstances, pave the way for a tighter market balance going forward than what we have seen lately. Otherwise, for our part, things have been going well in the sea this winter and spring, except for the issues in Southern Norway, of course, which are now behind us. And to this, it can be added that our biological metrics are either better or on par with last year, which was also a good year for us. So a good start to the year for Mowi Farming in other words. Things are also going well on land. So we are staying the course and sticking to our plans. And following on from this, we maintained our farming volume growth -- or farming volume guidance for this year of 605,000 tonnes earlier this morning, which is equivalent to a growth of as high as 8.3% year-over-year, mainly driven by, as I said, the acquisition of Nova Sea last year. And good biological performance also helps with cost. So we have guided stable cost in the second quarter, quarter-over-quarter before declining further in the second half of the year, partly aided by more harvest volumes and consequently, more dilution of fixed cost. I think that was pretty much everything we wanted to cover this morning. But before we move on to the Q&A session, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my 11,700 colleagues in 26 countries across the world for making this massive operation run as well as it does. It's truly impressive and, of course, much, much appreciated. So with that, Kim and Kristian, I think we are ready for the Q&A session. So if Kristian can please join me on the stage and help me out with some of the questions, and then you, Kim, can administer the mic and orchestrate the questions from the audience and the web.

Sounds good. So we will start with the first question this time around from the web from Andres Castanos-Mollor from Berenberg. He's got a question on dividends. If you can comment on the high dividend payout ratio, higher than previous quarters, please?

Yes. So the quarterly dividend is always a trade-off between many things, but to keep it short, I think we shall interpret it as our Board having faith in the future prospects of Mowi. We have gone from being a 400,000 tonnes farmer to now being a 600,000 tonnes farmer in just a few years. And earlier this morning, Kristian showed us that we are competitive on cost, and we also expect limited industry supply growth going forward. So that's the backdrop of that decision.

And then a follow-up question on volumes. If you can comment on the reasoning for the volume beat versus your own guidance for Q1?

Well, as we said, things are going well in the sea. We always like to be conservative in Mowi. So Kristian showed us our track record on delivering on volume guidance, and it doesn't happen by itself. It also illustrates our methodology. So it was a good first quarter. We had algae issues in the South and algae hit. But beyond that, I think this is the best first quarter for Mowi, at least in my time.

Christian Nordby, Arctic Securities. Jet fuel prices and diesel prices are much higher now. How does this impact the standard reference price in Oslo due to higher prices on transportation?

It's still early days, really. So I think we just have to wait and see how this plays out. So we have been in this so-called crisis for a few weeks. So I don't think we have more knowledge or insight in this than what you have. So nothing so far that has really changed our either plans or numbers, I have to say.

But you haven't seen substantially higher transport costs yet?

Of course, transport cost is up. But at the end of the day, that's not the cost driver in this. So we see inflationary pressure, we see that inflation creeps upwards in general, but again, nothing that will impact our numbers and plans for this year, at least so far. But this can change. And it's still early days. That's my point. So we are a little bit in limbo in terms of seeing how or where this ends.

Martin Kaland, ABG Sundal Collier.

It's perhaps a bit detailed, but on the feed price chart that you show and the increasing feed price, is that last data point Q1 or Q2? Because you say that you expect stable feed prices in second half versus first half. So did it continue to increase in Q2 from what you show there? Or is that Q2?

Yes. The last data point is Q1, but the message from us is that we are covered when it comes to marine ingredients including Q3. And then it's too early to say how the development will be from there. And we also have measures that we are working with. We have the Skretting partnership. And this ongoing fishery in Peru. It's too early to say how that will turn out and what kind of effects this will in the end get. But we are good until Q3.

Perhaps I can give a little bit more flavor on that. So to share something internal. So we acquired Nova Sea last year. And so far, we have sourced Nova Sea externally because of feed contracts, but also because we haven't had the capacity internally, right? And in the first quarter, our feed price in Region North, Mowi Region North, old Region North, was lower than in Nova Sea. So I think we have something going on here. We are on the right track. So I think when we look inside Mowi, things are going really, really well, right? And then we look outside and things are not that great. And then the combination of net of this, I think we just, again, have to wait and see. We don't know more than what you do.

And just a quick one on Torghatten Aqua. Is that yet to be included in your volume guidance? Or is it now included?

Well, it's still early days. So this we have to revert to later if it's merited. So we don't change our guidance in May. That's too early. So the growth season is in the autumn. And 4,500 tonnes on 605,000 tonnes, not to be arrogant, but it's not much.

Okay. We have another question from the web. If you can comment on the supply outlook for the rest of the year, and why we should have confidence in the low growth provided the high growth in Q1 of this year and also the high growth last year, please?

Yes. If you go back 1 year to April '25, then you saw 12% higher global biomass in sea. If you look at the numbers this year, it's stable. If you look at the harvest-ready generations, they are actually down in Norway, in Chile, and globally. So we believe there is a big difference when looking at the biomass numbers, and we are driven by numbers. And that's what we use to make our assumptions. And the data at least tells us that this volume growth will come a lot down ahead. So that's why we have given these numbers.

Good. So no more questions from the web.

No more questions from the audience. Okay. Then it only remains for me to thank everyone for the attention. We hope to see you all back in August, if not before. And in the meantime, take care and have a great day ahead. Thank you.