Bakkafrost shareholders get £25m in reduced dividend payout
FAROESE fish farmer Bakkafrost paid its shareholders around £25m in dividends for 2020.
Bakkafrost is the largest salmon producer and the biggest private employer on the Faroe Islands. It also has operations in Scotland – where it recently acquired the Scottish Salmon Company – and the US. The group is the world’s third largest salmon producer.
The total payout is worth DKK 216m or NOK 294m, with each dividend priced at DKK 3.65 or almost NOK 4.96. A Faroese company that announces its quarterly and annual financial results in Danish kroner, Bakkafrost is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and the shares are quoted in NOK.
The decision to distribute a dividend was not a total surprise, although there would not have been too many raised eyebrows if the company had decided to postpone paying one this time. The figure is around a third less than previous years.
Bakkafrost’s earnings and profits were badly hit by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Its profit came down from almost DKK 802m in 2019 to DKK 462.8m last year. The total harvest volumes were 85,686 tonnes (gutted weight) against 65,000 tonnes in 2019.