Good morning and welcome to Norcod's Q2 2023 webcast. My name is Christian Riber, and I'm CEO of Norcod.

Together with me today, I have Stian Hansen, our CFO, who will present the numbers together with me. Also, at the end of this session, we'll have a Q&A.

Please put your questions in the Q&A part of the Teams. Q2 was characterized by a quarter with a very good biological performance, with strong growth and stable production.

During the quarter, we've increased our biomass with 1,267 tonnes, which is a 31% increase of our biomass. During the first six months of 2023, we've increased our biomass with 2,330 tonnes, which is a 75% increase of biomass.

Value-wise, it's a even bigger increase. Stian will come back to that later.

Due to the great production and growth we've had during the quarter, we tried to limit our harvesting as much as possible. In total for the quarter, we harvested 791 tonnes, with a revenue of 57 million NOK.

Despite the low volumes, we've kept our operating losses to 20 million NOK, which is an over 30% year-on-year EBIT margin improvement. Also, during the quarter, we have decreased our production cost at sea with about 10%, and we're expecting to see a significantly further reductions during the coming quarters, due to higher volumes of harvest and also larger-sized fish coming to harvest.

At the same time, we've kept our superior quality of our fish at over 96%, which is a very important part for us. In order to achieve our high sales prices and keep our quality on our fish, this is a very important factor.

Also, during the quarter, we continue to see a very strong market development with more and more demand for Snowcod, specifically for existing but also new markets and clients. We are seeing a well above average sales price result for Norcod.

Also, during the quarter, we have strengthened our financial platform with a completed equity raise and increased debt facility, putting us in position to execute the growth plan in place. Post-quarter highlights: we are now moving from phase focused on biomass build-up and new sites into a phase focused on increasing harvesting volumes and sales, and therefore we will see significant improvement of our financial results.

Regarding ASC, we decided early in the spring to focus on the new ASC Farm Standard instead of the existing Farm Standard. To be certified with this new standard it's a bit more time-consuming and takes a bit longer time, but we are looking forward to getting the certification in place by the end of the year.

Last but not least, we are also progressing with the installation of our fish oil facility at our harvesting facility, Kråkøy, which will put us in a position to utilize even more of each fish harvested. As mentioned, the first half of 2023 and also Q2 was characterized by a very, very good production, well above budget, and stable operations.

We continue the good biological results, increasing our biomass with over 1,260 tonnes, now totaling a biomass of 5,390 tonnes by the end of the quarter. Despite us harvesting larger volumes during the next six months, we will still see a biomass increase till the end of the year.

During the quarter, we harvested 791 tonnes of fish, all processed at our own facility, Kråkøy, and as I said, with a very high superior share of the quality. During the quarter, we've also stocked two of our sites, both Labukta and Jamnungen, with a total number of juveniles of 2.5 million.

This is, again, a significant increase of our juvenile stocking, which would result in larger volumes in '28 and '29. Also, we received our first juvenile fish from our new juvenile facility, Namdal Settefisk, which was successfully transferred to the sea phase during the quarter.

We're also continuing to standardize and strengthen our infrastructure. We have now received our first concrete feed barge from Skala, which was deployed in May at Labukta, giving us now access to much more robust power supply systems.

Now our locations are also all connected to land power, making it much more stable. Status on our growth plan.

We are continuing to progress according to plan, with new sites being developed, juvenile capacity increased, and also our financial platform in line with the growth plan. We're well under way with our new site, Snutan, close to Frosvika, where we will deploy fish during the second half of this year.

Together with our next site, Selneset, we will now have six large farming sites in operation, together with two minor sites, in total eight sites. This will put us in a place where we continuously can produce an annual production of 20,000 tonnes.

In addition to that, we also have several new application for new sites and expansions into new areas. We're well under way.

Now we've built this foundation of continuously producing 20,000 tonnes annually. As earlier reported, we also now have standardized our equipment selection.

We have tested out over the years a lot of different types of equipment, feeding systems, and so on. Now we are very confident that we know what equipment is optimal for cod farming, and we're deploying this at new sites as well.

Also, very importantly, in June, we entered into a new five-year agreement with Havlandet, our long-term supplier of fry. Now they will also be a significant supplier of juveniles for us in the coming years, where they are building a capacity to up to 7.5 million juveniles annually.

Together with our existing agreements for both fry and juveniles with at our other locations, we have now secured sufficient fry and juvenile to complete our growth plan. Also, these new facilities for juveniles put us in a position where we will have much more flexibility in stocking strategies and size selections.

As mentioned, we have also strengthened our financial platform through the quarter. We have done this by an equity raise and increased our debt facilities.

This puts us in a position to execute our growth ambitions.

Then we will proceed with the financial update and going through all of our numbers here. The harvest volume increased somewhat from the first quarter this year and ended at 791 tonnes, generating an operating revenue of 57 million NOK.

This represents an increase of 21% in operating revenues per kilo from the corresponding quarter last year, which emphasizes the continued positive development in achieved sales prices. The production cost at sea decreased by 25% from the first quarter this year as we have harvested more fish earlier in the production cycle in Q1 and closed more in on preferable sizes during the second quarter of this year, as we now are proceeding towards the second half of this year.

The production cost has also slightly decreased year-over-year, and we also expect a further reduction in production cost per kilo throughout this year as we are now increasing the harvesting volume and reaching a more optimal average size of the fish on the projects set for harvesting. Our available funds at the end of this quarter increased from the first quarter this year after we completed the capital raise, and this is leading us to available funds of 87 million NOK at the end of this first half year.

The cash proportion is, of course, low as we run all our funds through the overdraft facilities with DNB, but we have now concluded with 87 million of available funds. The balance sheet is, of course, also affected by the strong biological growth throughout this year, and this is manifested in our numbers.

During the quarters, the biomass at sea increased by almost 1,300 tonnes, with an increase in nominal value of 110 million NOK alone in the second quarter this year. This represents an increase in biomass value of 40% during the quarter and more than a doubling during the first half year.

This is, of course, in line with our scale-up strategy. We are also growing on the asset side due to preparations for startup of new production cycles and locations.

New and improved equipment for the ongoing productions, in addition to everything we need for a successful startup of Snutan this fall, is increasing our non-current assets as well. The total balance grew to 860 million NOK at the end of the quarter, funded by additional equity from the capital raise and, of course, the increased debt facilities from our main bank, primarily through an increase in the overdraft facilities.

As we proceed to the financial review, even though the quarter and the first half year in general has been characterized by low harvest volumes, we still have significant improvements in several financial parameters. The revenues per kilo increased by 21% year-over-year.

Even though we did not have sufficient harvest volume throughout the period to carry all fixed costs, we still see an improvement in EBIT before value adjustments of above 46%, which is extremely important for us as we now are progressing towards improved financial results. We are also very satisfied with no extraordinary events and zero nonrecurring items for the first half year.

In addition to the positive value development of our biomass, this is generating an EBIT of -20 million NOK, which is an improvement of 57% year-over-year. More importantly, this represents a 31% improvement in EBIT margin.

As we are commencing with increased harvesting levels further on this year, we expect this improvement to just continue now for the next upcoming quarters. This is, of course, summing up a lot from the previous page, but I would like to comment separately on the production cost per kilo.

The production cost per kilo had a decrease from 59.9 NOK per kilo in the corresponding quarter last year to 55.6 NOK per kilo in Q2 '23. We expect this reduction in production cost per kilo to continue its decrease further throughout this year as we are increasing the harvesting volume and reaching a more optimal average size of the fish.

As we are commencing with increased harvesting levels further on this year, we expect continued improvement in financial performance as we are progressing according to our upscaling strategy now. The net loss for the period ended at 31.5 million NOK after net financials, which is a 40% improvement year-over-year.

The balance sheet development is, as of course I mentioned, increasing rapidly due to our growth and upscaling. The increased financial capacity was secured during the second quarter this year as a result of the completed private placement, raising net proceeds of 81 million NOK in equity and unlocking a total of 120 million NOK in new debt from DNB.

Combined with the leasing financing of most new equipment, this constitutes our financial solution for the ongoing upscaling according to our strategy. The cash flows from operating activities ended at -91 million NOK in Q2 '23.

The strong growth of biological assets during the quarter has demanded significant cash flow, of course, with a net increase in inventory of biological assets alone of 106 million NOK. Combined with low harvesting levels as we close in on more preferable average weights for the second half of this year, this creates a lack of operating cash flow during the period, but enables stronger future earnings.

The investing activities generated net cash flows of -28 million NOK this quarter, and is related to investments in equipment for our growth plan, combined with no sale of any property, plant, or equipment during this period. Net cash flows from financing activities ended at 113 million NOK this quarter in plus, as a result of the proceeds received from the issuance of shares with 1 million NOK in net, in addition to the net increase in bank debt of 45 million NOK during the quarter.

The net cash flow for the quarter in general concluded at -6 million NOK. I will give the word back to Christian for the market update.

As previously mentioned, we are continuing to see a strong market for fresh cod. Of course, a limited supply supporting high prices and strong demand, but at the same time, we see a clear trend that the clients utilizing Snowcod on a regular basis are seeing the value of high quality, stable deliveries, and fixed prices, and therefore having higher and higher demand.

Also, a lot of new markets and new clients are coming on board, and we are seeing and expecting a very positive trends for the markets in the coming quarters. We are continuing to see with our Snowcro- with our Snowcod premium pricing, with an average achieved price close to 8% above the market average.

This really reflects the consistency of our high, superior grade share, together with some very strong client relationship and a good commercial platform. As I said, after a full focus on growing our biomass and strengthening our production facilities, we're now transferring into a period where we will be focusing even more on harvesting and sales.

This will significantly increase our financial results in the coming quarters and and and forward. Regarding ASC, there's an existing ASC standard where cod has been adopted into salmon, and there's a new ASC Farm Standard coming in the new year.

We decided earlier in the spring to focus on the new Farming Standard, put us put us in a position where we don't need to be recertified in the new year. It's a bit more defending demanding standard, and it takes a bit longer time, but for us, it's the right move to do, and we will be the first cod farmer to be certified on this new ASC Farm Standard.

We're expecting to be able to deliver ASC Snowcod by the end of this year. On the outlook, all in all, we've had a very good quarter production-wise.

We've seen great temperatures across all sites. As we say here in Norway, we've actually had a great cod summer.

It hasn't been the warmest summer. We have stable temperatures around our sites of around 13 degrees, which is a very good temperature for cod farming.

We've seen well above budget production at all sites. Therefore, we also limited our harvesting during the quarters to get that extra growth on all fish.

There will be a significant change in the coming quarters, harvesting-wise and sales-wise, where we'll see a significant revenue increase. The stocking at Labukta will be finalized here in September.

We look very much forward to starting up our new site, Snutan, close to our existing site, Frosvika, where we have already equipped the site with new farming equipment adapted to cod farming. We look very much forward to that coming on board.

Also, we are still on track with our production plan, and we're expecting to harvest between 13,000 and 15,000 tonnes in 2024, which is, of course, supported by the strong biological performance we've seen during the first six months of this year. We've secured both production facilities, juvenile capacity, to execute this plan.

ASC we just talked about. Also very importantly, we are now, as we speak, installing our new fish oil facility at Kråkøy, which will put us in a position where we can utilize up to 98% of each fish that we harvest.

This is very important, both financially, but also sustainability-wise, as we will utilize almost every part of our fish for human consumption. Going into the future with higher biomass, more consistent and ongoing harvest volumes, we feel we are in a very good place and look forward to presenting some very improved financial results in the coming quarters.

Now we'll start the Q&A session. Again, please put in your questions in the Q&A if you have questions.

I guess we will start with Kim. He has asked, "How do the fish react to the higher water temperatures?"

Far we haven't seen higher water temperatures during the Norwegian coast. As mentioned, the Norwegian summer this year has been very favorable for cod farming, we have very stable and good temperatures for cod farming.

Kristoffer is asking, "Are the new stockings sorted by gender?" No.

I think Kristoffer is referring to an ongoing gender-sorting project where we are looking to sort males and females separately to limit the possibility of maturation. This is an ongoing project, and we will update when we have news about this.

Also, Kristoffer is asking, "How many tonnes do we expect to harvest in the second half of 2023?" It's very dependent on the continuous growth and how we see production ongoing, but we are targeting between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes of harvest during the second half of the year.

Valentin is asking, "Do you see any rick in potential Super El Niño coming this fall, increase in fish food prices, supply problems, environmental problems?" Of course, we are seeing or expecting to see increasing in feed prices.

Large part of our feed is marine content through fish oil and fishmeal, but we are countering this by adding salmon oil to our feed. We have a clear advantage on the feed side that we can utilize salmon oil, which the salmon industry cannot, and also we're looking into other protein resources which is being implemented in our feed.

We have countermeasures to these increase in feed prices. Yeah.

We have this question here in the chat as well, regarding our gross sales prices of 72 NOK per kilo, questioning if this is far below what the competitors say they are achieving. We just can remember that 72 NOK per kilo is in whole fish equivalent.

In HOG, this represents an average above 90 NOK per kilo in head-on gutted for the quarter.

As I just said, as we also stated in the slides, we are about 8% above the average sales prices of farmed cod. This is, of course, due to our key branding as Snowcod in all our key markets, but also due to our commercial platform and strong customer relations.

In general, we can say, there's also being asked about our competitors, in general we can say cod farming as an industry is in a very positive development. All cod farmers are in growth and are showing significant improvement in biological results.

As an industry, this is a very positive for our renome across the markets, but also here in Norway. There's very, very positive tendencies for the industry in general.

Also, Isabella is asking, "You say great summer, bigger fish, higher revenue soon, but will you be able to break even and when?" Yes, we've had a great summer.

We've had great production. Therefore, we will see increased fish weights.

We'll see increased production numbers, and we will execute higher harvesting volumes during the quarters and also during 2024. As we have indicated earlier, we are looking forward to some very positive results for the coming quarters.

It looks like there are no more questions in the Q&A chat. Oops.

New one came here. Johnny is asking, "How is Norcod market share at the moment, export-wise?"

Of course, during the first six months of 2023, we have kept our harvesting to a minimum as we've had very good growth on the fish. Therefore, our market share in general has gone down.

Also, we've seen our colleague, Kim, come online by end of '22 and into '23, also starting to harvest fish. We are now three three cod farmers delivering finished product to the market, which is positive.

Okay. Can't see if there's any more comments.

If there's any more questions or comments, you are very welcome to contact us directly. Besides that, we just want to say thank you for attending our webcast and Q&A.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.