Norway Royal Salmon Chief Financial Officer Ola Loe stepped down from his position on 25 May.
Loe erved as NRS’ CFO since 2009. He previously worked as a senior manager at KPMG and as a group auditor for Cermaq, Norway Pelagic, Fjord Seafood, and Midnor Group. He will continue to work in a transitional capacity at NRS in the coming weeks and months, while NRS Group Accounting Manager Bjørn Kleven takes over as interim CFO, according to NRS Interim CEO Charles Høstlund, who provided no reason for Loe’s departure.
"Ola has done a solid job for NRS and he has played an important role in the development of the company since he took the position as CFO in 2009,” Høstlund said.
On 25 May, Norway Royal Salmon reported a first-quarter 2022 earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) before depreciation of offshore equipment of NOK 133 million (USD 14 million, EUR 13.1 million), compared to NOK 60 million (USD 6.3 million, EUR 5.9 million) in Q1 2021, and an EBIT per kilogram of production of NOK 20.65 (USD 2.18, EUR 2.03), compared to NOK 6.40 (USD 0.68 , EUR 0.63) in Q1 2021.
"NRS has had a fantastic development from 2009. From an annual harvest volume of 6,000 [metric tons] when I started to now have an annual production capacity of about 85,000 MT. It has been a pleasure to work with the team in NRS and I will miss the employees and the challenging work tasks," Loe said.
The company, which is in a contentious process with NTS over its planned acquisition of SalmoNor, underwent a leadership change in April as the appointment of interim CEO Klaus Hatlebrekke expired and Høstlund, who was CEO of NRS from 2014 until resigning in September 2021, was appointed the company’s new interim CEO.
NRS owns 36,085 MT of maximum-allowed biomass for salmon farming in Troms and Finnmark, Norway, and in Iceland, it controls 21,800 MT of salmon farming permits and 5,300 MT of trout-farming permits through its subsidiary Arctic Fish. NRS also owns a minority interest in two Norwegian fish farming companies with nine fish-farming licenses.
"Throughout the quarter we have seen all-time high prices, providing a solid basis for profitability and a very positive market view for salmon in the future,” Høstlund said. “Unfortunately, we have had biological challenges in both Norway and Iceland that significantly affected the results in this quarter.”
Arctic Fish experienced high mortality at two of its farming sites, and the company was forced to accelerate its harvesting of both sites. Salmon deaths at the farms reached 2,512 MT and resulted in a non-recurring cost of NOK 129 million (USD 13.6 million, EUR 12.7 million) attributed to the company’s Q1 2022 results.
Høstlund said the company will benefit moving forward from it achieving full production at its new smolt plant in Dåfjord, Norway, in Q1, which he said “is a very important step for NRS to manage the future growth plans.”
"NRS believes that sustainable salmon production is very important for our long-term economic value creation. The production of fish delivered from the new smolt facility and the phasing out of triploid fish are expected to lead to a decrease in production costs, increased profitability and fewer biological challenges,” Høstlund said.
Photo courtesy of Norway Royal Salmon
