Nordea Markets: Better then expected

As expected, the operations in Canada (culling smolt) and Rogaland (storm damages) were weak owing to write downs. Going forward, they maintain their positive stance on the UK operations and also highlight a gradual improvement (normalization) in Canada. They maintain their 2014 volume guidance for the group and also the 2015 production target at 15k tonnes in Canada. As figures were marginally on the upside share price might react positively today, also as a relief that they manage to deliver and also showing good underlying operations.

Hampered by old ”ghosts”

The EBIT at NOK 140m was slightly better than expected, mainly owing to higher t\harvesting than guided in the quarter. The group EBIT came in at NOK 10.7 per kilo including write downs (NOK 2 per kilo). The write downs are related to operational disturbances (culling of fish in Canada and storm damages in Rogaland) We expect substantial improvement in margins during the remainder of 2014 with Canada and Rogaland as the main contributors to that development.

Volume guidance maintained – should be positive in the market

Despite higher Q1 volumes than guided, they maintain their 69,000 tonne 2014 volume guidance and they also restate their ambition on a 2015 volume ramp up in Canada. The net debt was slightly reduced from Q4 as expected. As the report came in marginally better than expected and there are positive underlying trends in all regions, we should expect the share price up some 1-2% from opening today.