AKVA 'shows stable results amid global challenge'

AKVA delivered revenue for the second quarter (Q2) of this year of NOK 862 million (US$ 96.6m), an increase of 8% compared to the same period in 2019. Ebitda decreased from NOK 101m to NOK 93m, while the Norwegian company's profit fell from NOK 58m in Q2 2019 to NOK 47m.

Order intake in the quarter was NOK 994m with an order book of NOK 1.78 billion  at the end of June 2020, achieving stable results amidst a challenging world situation. AKVA signed a strategically important contract for Tubenet, its proprietry snorkel cage, in April 2020.

"AKVA group has remained focused on the measures implemented after the Covid-19 outbreak in March to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers, to monitor and optimise the general liquidity in the company, to maintain the security of the supply during the crisis. and a constant order entry to guarantee work for everyone in the AKVA group”, the company stated in its results report.

So far, “the pandemic has impacted our land segment the most with the cancellation and postponement of contracts. With respect to the cage-based segment, the impact is mixed since our portfolio of offers is more diversified in regards to the needs of our clients”, the company said.

Cage-based technology 

The cage-based technology division brought in revenue of NOK 775m for Q2 2020. Ebitda for the segment in Q2 came out at NOK 111m. The Ebitda margin was 14.3% (Q2 2019: 12.8%). EBIT and EBIT margin ended at NOK 68m  and 8.8% (6.9%), respectively.

The revenue in the Nordic region ended at NOK 532m, while the order intake ended at NOK 304m in the second quarter. The region continues to experience high activity with a strong pipeline.

In the Americas region, AKVA said activity is on a relatively high level and the order book is increasing. The region had revenue of NOK 171m, which is an increase from NOK 124m in the second quarter last year.

Europe & Middle East achieved revenue of NOK 72m in Q2 2020, an increase from NOK 58m in the same quarter last year. The operations in Scotland, Turkey and export out of Norway came in well above Q2 2019 revenue, said the company.

Outlook

AKVA group said it maintains focus on full grow out RAS facilities, and in June 2020 it 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 in the United States which has a potential value for AKVA group of $130m.

“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 under way. The fundamentals for growth of our net service business on the east coast of Canada is established with the acquisition 70% of the shares in Newfoundland Aqua Service Ltd in February 2020,” added AKVA.