Russian Aquaculture turns loss into £19.5m profit

The turnaround came on the back on a 35% sales increase and a 28% revenue increase to RUB 6.7bn.

“We grew production volumes considerably in 1H 2021, which had a positive impact on revenue and EBITDA,” said chief executive Ilya Sosnov in a press release. “In addition, thanks to the excellent rate of weight gain of our fish, we delivered net profit of nearly RUB 2 billion.

“Our results in the first half of the year were also supported by growth of the market. The Russian salmon market grew by 50% in the first half of 2021 in volume terms compared with the first half of 2020, and by 47% compared with the first half of 2019. This growth further reinforces our conviction in the fundamental long-term outlook for the Russian fish market and prospects for increasing sales volumes of our fresh, high-quality products.”

Invested RUB 2.2bn

Russian Aquaculture farms trout in lakes in the Republic of Karelia, which borders Finland, and salmon further north in the Barents Sea in the Murmansk region. It owns cultivation rights for 39 sites with a total potential production volume of around 50,000 tonnes of salmonids.

“We continue to invest in implementing our growth strategy, allocating RUB 2.2 billion during the period (H1 2021) to buy processing capacities and equipment for our farms,” said Sosnov.

“We have successfully integrated our primary processing plant into all of our business processes, bringing us much closer to our goal of building the largest vertically integrated player in the aquaculture segment.

“Our strong results, combined with a high degree financial stability, enabled the Board of Directors to recommend paying out dividends totalling RUB 352 million based on the results of the first half of the year. Together with dividends for Q1 2021 and FY 2020, we will pay out a total of RUB 1.1 billion in dividends, or RUB 13 (£0.13) per share, this year.”