Southern Chilean-based Norwegian-owned salmon farmer said it was working “hard to provide good news going forward”.
Nova Austral – who weathered the stormy scandal-filled waters of 2019 – posted its Q4 results on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Revenue was the same as it was the year before at USD 41.2 million. EBIT decreased by 8.1 per cent to USD 7.2 million.
The salmon farmer – also owner of the Sixty South brand – attributed the decline in revenue in part to the higher costs of goods sold mainly due to smolts elimination (USD 1.3 million) and the costs of smolts sold (USD 1.4 million) as well as legal costs.
Its new Magallanes hatchery is now 100 per cent complete and stocked 18 per cent of the smolts the salmon farmer stocked during 2018, it wrote.
Nova Austral added that the February’s announcement that its joint venture to farm salmon in Antarctic Chile with Salmones Austral subsidiary Trusal is allowing it to “strengthen the value and future cash flow generation of the company”.
Despite the misreporting scandal that engulfed it last year, the board of directors and shareholders Altor and Bain Capital said they were continuing to support Nova Austral. “As we put last year’s events behind us, the focus going forward will be to steer the company through its legal and regulatory matters,” wrote Nova Austral. There were no material updates as to those matters in the latest report.
