Frøya Municipality, Norway-based SalMar has entered into an agreement with AS Knutshaugfisk to acquire a controlling stake in the company, SalMar announced recently.
SalMar said pending necessary regulatory approvals, it will acquire Knutshaugfisk via a combination of settlement in shares and cash. According to SalMar, the family-owned salmon farmer currently has licenses to farm 3,464 metric tons (MT) of salmon across four farming locations in central Norway.
"Knutshaugfisk is a well-run family company with which we have developed a close and value-creating collaboration over many years,” SalMar CEO Frode Arntsen said. “SalMar's purchase of a significant stake in the company is a natural continuation of this collaboration.”
SalMar said it expects the transaction to be completed in January 2025.
SalMar made the announcement as part of its Q3 2024 results report, which revealed drops in profit, earnings, and revenue in the quarter.
SalMar reported an operational EBIT for the group of NOK 1.04 billion (USD 94 million, EUR 89 million) in Q3 2024, down sharply from the NOK 2.29 billion (USD 208 million, EUR 196 million) it posted in Q3 2023. The company’s EBIT per kilogram dropped to NOK 17.30 (USD 1.57, EUR 1.48) in Q3 2024, down from NOK 29.30 (USD 2.66, EUR 2.51) per kilogram in Q3 2023.
The drop in EBIT coincided with a drop in revenue from NOK 7.5 billion (USD 681 million, EUR 643 million) in Q3 2023 to NOK 6.1 billion (USD 554 million, EUR 523 million) in Q3 2024.
The group’s profit dropped even more sharply. The company posted profit before tax from continuing operations of NOK 839 million (USD 76 million, EUR 72 million) in Q3 2024, down from the NOK 2.3 billion (USD 208 million, EUR 197 million) it posted in Q3 2023.
“Although the result is affected by challenges at sea, the result also shows that the structure we have in SalMar is solid and rigged to handle challenging periods, which means that the financial results are acceptable for the period,” Arntsen said. “Going forward, we are fully focused on improving performance and exploiting the potential that we see lies in the value chain.”
SalMar said the company’s farming segments in Norway continue to face biological challenges, stemming from the ripple effects of string jellyfish attacks. In December 2023, the company culled approximately 1.2 million salmon at its Ørnfjordbotn, Senja, Norway-based salmon farm after an influx of Apolemia uvaria harmed and killed fish.
The jellyfish attacks dampened the company’s financial results in FY 2023, and the company said ripple effects from those attacks – coupled with record high sea temperatures and high sea lice pressure – impacted the company’s biological performance during the period.
As a result, SalMar reduced its volume expectations for 2024 to ...
