AKVA reports 10% revenue rise for Q4 2021

Aquaculture technology group AKVA saw revenue rise 10% year-on-year to NOK 831m (£69m) for the last quarter of 2021.

EBIT (earnings before interest and taxation) was up to NOK 19m (£1.58m) from NOK 9m (£750,000) in Q4 2020, but the company said profits had been impacted by cost inflation and supply chain issues.

Order intake for the last quarter was down to NOK 741m (£61.7m) compared with NOK 1.014bn (£84.5m) in Q4 2020, with an order backlog of NOK 3bn (£250,000) at the end of December 2021.

The company has announced that a dividend of NOK 1 (£0.08) per share will be paid in Q1 2022.

Revenue for AKVA’s Sea Based Technology (SBT) division was NOK 649m (£54m) up from  NOK 580m (£48m) Q4 2020. Order intake for the division was NOK 693 compared with NOK 602 in the same period the previous year. The division’s strongest regions were the Americas and Europe and the Middle East (other than the Nordics), while the Nordic region revenue held steady year-on-year.

EBIT for the SBT division was NOK 14m (£1.17m).

The Land Based Technology division reported revenues of NOK 161m (£13.1m), up 2.5% on Q4 2020. EBIT was NOK 5m (£42,000), down from NOK 9m (£75,000) in Q4 2020.

Order intake for the LBT division was NOK 21m (£1.75m), markedly less than the NOK 385m (£32m) recorded in Q1 2020.

The order backlog for LBT at the end of December 2021 was NOK 2.043bn (£170m).

Revenue in the Digital segment was NOK 21m (£1.75m) marginally up from NOK 20m (£1.67m) in Q4 2020.

The company said 2021 had been a challenging year, dealing with the impact of a major cyber-attack and continuing Covid-19 restrictions, but the “fundamentals” of the business remained unchanged.

It added: “Salmon prices [are] expected to remain strong driven by reduced supply. On the other hand, uncertainty related to supply chain restrictions and cost inflations may impact the profitability.”