AKVA sales surge despite \’challenging quarter\’
THE AKVA group, the international aquaculture technology services provider, today reported increased sales of 862 million Norwegian kroner (£74 million) during the second quarter of this year, a period in what the company describes as a \’challenging global situation\’. This represents a rise of eight per cent on the same period in 2019 with America and Europe and the Middle East making a growing contribution.
It also reports an order intake during the period of NOK 994 million (£85 million), up from NOK 760 million in Q2 12 months ago. This has increased the total order book to NOK 1.8 Billion. However, the operating profit fell by NOK 9 million to NOK 42 million in the second quarter. Profit after tax decreased by four million to NOK 26 million.
Revenues in the Americas totalled NOK 190 million against NOK 136 million in 2019, while Europe and the Middle East reported revenue of NOK 73 million, compared with NOK 59 million last year.
The company said:
\’The group have remained focused on the implemented measures started after the COVID-19 outbreak in March to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers, to monitor and optimize the overall liquidity in the company, to maintain the security of supply during the crisis and a steady order intake to ensure work for all in AKVA group.
\’So far, the pandemic has impacted our land based segment the most with cancellation and postponement of contracts. With regards to the cage based segment the impact is mixed as our portfolio of offerings are more diversified in regards of customer needs. The (land based) pipeline of projects continues to be strong. Order backlog ended at NOK 771 million compared to NOK 611 million last year\’.
Reports from Norway suggest the group has high expectations for the submersible fish farm Atlantis Subsea Farming, which has been granted a development license. During June, fish from the second release were slaughtered, and a new release is now planned at an even more exposed site in 2020/2021.
On cage based technology AKVA said:
\’The revenue in the Nordic region ended at NOK 532 million (NOK 482 million in 2019) while the order intake ended at NOK 304 million (NOK 204 million). The region continues to experience high activity with a strong pipeline. In the Americas region, the activity is on a relatively high level and the order book is increasing. The region had revenues of NOK 171 million (NOK 214 million). Europe and the Middle East achieved revenues of NOK 72 million (NOK 58 million). The operations in Scotland, Turkey and exports out of Norway came in well above Q2 2019 revenue.
Looking to the future, AKVA said:
\’The group maintains focus on full grow out RAS facilities, and in June 2020 AKVA group signed a non-binding term sheet with the Norwegian company AquaCon AS for a potential supply of equipment, engineering and design to a new land based grow-out facility and has a potential value for AKVA group of US $130 million. Our net service businesses are about to be expanded, as a new service station is to be built in northern Norway with a partner and plans for additional stations are underway.
\’There is strong interest in the market for TubenetTM and the AKVA group signed a contract of NOK 100 million in April 2020 for several deliveries to one customer. The fundament for growth of our net service business on the East-coast of Canada is established with the acquisition 70 per cent of the shares in Newfoundland Aqua Service Ltd in February 2020. AKVA group remain focused on developing digital solutions as integrated part of our product offerings\’.
