Norwegian aquaculture services and equipment provider AKVA achieved record first-quarter orders totaling NOK 1.1 billion (USD 125.9 million, EUR 112.1 million), compared to NOK 639 (USD 73.1 million, EUR 65.1 million) in Q1 2018. It attributed the increase to strong sales across all of its regions.
On a trailing 12-month basis, the group’s order intake has increased to more than NOK 3 billion (USD 343.1 million, EUR 305.6 million), compared to NOK 2.6 billion (USD 297.4 million, EUR 264.8 million) for the full year 2018.
Its Nordic region’s orders for the quarter totaled NOK 580 million (USD 66.3 million, EUR 59.1 million), compared to NOK 293 million (USD 33.5 million, EUR 29.8 million) in Q1 2018. This included a NOK 300 million (USD 34.3 million, EUR 30.6 million) land-based contract from Svaberget Smolt AS.
Added to this, AKVA said the high market activity in the Americas continued in the quarter with the region achieving an order intake of NOK 151 million (USD 17.3 million, EUR 15.4 million), compared to NOK 187 million (USD 21.4 million, EUR 19.1 million) in Q1 2018.
In its Europe and Middle East region, the Q1 revenues fell from NOK 105 million (USD 12 million, EUR 10.7 million) to NOK 74 million (USD 8.5 million, EUR 7.5 million) following the completion of some larger contracts in 2018.
Depreciation and amortization for the quarter totaled NOK 48 million (USD 5.5 million, EUR 4.9 million), compared to NOK 22 million (USD 2.5 million, EUR 2.2 million) in Q1 2018, while its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased from NOK 37 million (USD 4.2 million, EUR 3.8 million) to NOK 49 million (USD 5.6 million, EUR 5 million). Its revenue for the quarter increased 45 percent to NOK 852 million (USD 97.4 million, EUR 86.8 million).
Of AKVA’s three business segments, both cage-based technology and land-based technology, posted improved Q1 revenues of NOK 689 million (USD 78.8 million, EUR 70.2 million) and NOK 119 million (USD 13.6 million, EUR 12.1 million) respectively, while its software segment’s revenues slipped to NOK 44 million (USD 5 million, EUR 4.5 million).
In terms of species, of AKVA’s total Q1 2019 revenue of NOK 852 million, some NOK 774 million (USD 88.5 million, EUR 78.8 million) was generated by technology and services for the salmon-farming sector.
The order backlog at the end of Q1 2019 was NOK 1.6 billion (USD 183 million, EUR 163 million), compared to NOK 1.4 billion (USD 160.1 million, EUR 142.6 million) a year previously, with AKVA highlighting that NOK 629 million (USD 71.9 million, EUR 64.1 million) or 39 percent of the total order backlog at the end of the last quarter was related to the LBT segment.
AKVA said that, in general, market activity is good in most markets and opportunities exist on a broad basis to further strengthen its position.
