Shetland shines as Grieg Q2 profits rise
GRIEG Seafood delivered higher profits during the second quarter of this year with its outgoing Shetland operation performing particularly well. However, the company’s Chief Executive, Andreas Kvame, said he was “not satisfied” with the results.
The company has agreed to sell its Shetland business to Scottish Sea Farms for £164m in a deal that it expects to complete by the end of the year.
The group made a pre-tax profit for the quarter of NOK 131m (£11m), well up from NOK 4m (£326,300) in Q2 of last year. EBIT for Q2 this year was NOK 44m (£3.6m).
Sales were lower than predicted, down from NOK 1.16bn (£95m) to NOK 1.1bn (£90m), while harvest volumes fell from 20,140 tonnes in Q2 last year to 17,812 tonnes this time.
Regarding Shetland, Kvame said: “We entered a sales purchase agreement with Scottish Sea Farms to sell our Shetland operations for £164m (now awaiting regulatory approval).
“Substantial improvement efforts over several years are completed in the region, resulting in a profit for the quarter. I am pleased to hand over a healthy business to new owners for further development.”
He added: “The market is getting better, prices are increasing, and biology is improving across the regions. At the same time, we still experienced some bumps in the road. I am not satisfied with an EBIT of NOK 44m.
“British Columbia was a highlight with stable biological control for yet another quarter, coupled with high prices in a strong US market. Rogaland delivered a satisfactory result, although the share of fixed-price contracts affected earnings.
“Finnmark [Norway], however, remained impacted by remnants of the challenging biology from last winter. Downgrades, harvest weight and the harvest profile affected price achievement negatively.”