Good morning, everyone. My name is Roy-Tore Rikardsen, and I am the CEO of Kaldvik. Welcome to the presentation of Kaldvik's results for the fourth quarter of 2024, alongside our CFO, Róbert Róbertsson, and we will guide you through this morning's presentation. Following the presentation, we will have a Q&A session, and you can submit your question directly via email to robert@kaldvik.is. Your disclaimer, you all know this. Please take a moment and read through. We go to the agenda, and we'll start with some highlights in Q4, and then go to the operational and financial and some strategical update before we close it with the outlooks and summary and the presentation with the Q&A. Q4 highlights. Biological incidents in Q4. We have a biomass write-down of EUR 23.1 million, and I will dedicate one slide first thing to go a bit into this incident.
Operational EBIT for Q4 after adjustment is EUR 5 million, and we harvested 6,668 tons in Q4, and the group EBIT adjusted for the biomass write-down of EUR 0.75 per kilogram. Our harvest volume guidance for 2025 is 21,500 tons, and the harvest volume in Q1 2025 will be approximately 5,500 tons. Our smolt input in 2025 will be approximately 7.5 million. Our strategic initiatives include the acquisition of the box factory and 1/3 of the harvesting station in Djúpivogur, and Róbert will go further into the details. A 10,000-ton license in Seyðisfjörður is pending approval, and we have initiated the refinancing process, and Róbert will also go a little bit more into the details later. The biological incident. If you first look at the graphics on the left side, I'll try to explain a little bit about that.
This is the 12-month average mortality rate at all our sea sites and generation together. In the beginning of last year, we were on 10%, and successful early release took it down to 6%. In the end of the quarter, we faced biological challenges, which also had consequences into Q1. We went back to the mortality level in 2022, and over the average mortality for Norway in 2023, sourced from Veterinærinstituttet. We faced some challenges with the smolt release in Q4, which led to financial and operational consequences. After releasing a lot of smolt and also losing a lot, we decided in collaboration with the food safety authorities to stop our release. We experienced a shortfall in our smolt release with 1.2 million smolt less than planned at sea from the Q4 release.
Our late release strategy, after having a few successful releases in Q4 earlier, unfortunately failed. This was a combination of several things, but this year it has been a lot colder than normal the last month of the year, and that's one of the reasons. We saw high mortality rates on the 2022 and 2023 generation, which was a major setback. High mortality and downgrades were observed due to winter wounds, and the 2022-2023 generation, which was released without the new winter wound vaccine, contributed to the problems. Due to adverse weather conditions and the lack of well-boat capacity, we missed also our harvest targets in Q4. The financial loss for the biological incident in Q4 2024 and the expected loss of Q1 2025 are reflected in our Q4 financial report, with a total biomass write-down of EUR 23.1 million.
These incidents will also affect our harvest volumes for 2025 and 2026, and in conclusion, we are taking steps to address these issues and prevent future occurrence. In this section, I will outline the actions we are taking to reduce biological risk and improve our operation. Improvements done in 2023 and 2024 for smolt release in 2025 and beyond. We have allocated EUR 28 million to improve capacity with new housing and tanks, as well as improving the quality of our water supply and control systems. Our new grow-out facility in Lännorth , the Rifós , and you can see in the picture on the left side, is operational in Q1 2025. This facility has increased our quality and capacity with 12 tanks and with a total capacity of 2,400 cubic meters, and also four start-feeding units on this facility.
We are implementing extensive improvement programs within our facility to reduce operational risk and increase security. For the 2024 and 2025 generation, all fish will be vaccinated with a new winter wound vaccine, specially designed for the conditions on the east coast of Iceland, and additionally, all fish will be vaccinated against ISA. We have secured increased well-boat capacity for the smolt release in 2025 and beyond, allowing us to release smolt earlier, and we have established smolt sourcing agreements to ensure releases exceeding 7.5 million going forward. We are increasing well-boat capacity to enhance our harvesting capabilities, and these improvements will increase our flexibility, reduce mortality, and mitigate the consequences of winter wounds. Outlook biology. In 2024, we achieved a harvest volume of approximately 15,000 tons and increased from our 2023 harvest volume.
Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, we are guiding for a harvest volume of 5,500 tons. Our harvest volume guidance for 2025 is 21,500 tons, and in 2025, we aim to put out 7.5 million smolt. That concludes my operational update. Now I'll hand it over to our CFO, Róbert, for the financial update.
Thank you, Roy. Morning. Here you have the highlights for the fourth quarter of 2024. Operational EBIT and EBIT per kilo for the quarter and full year in the tables on this slide have been adjusted for the one-off biomass write-down that Roy mentioned earlier. For example, if we would take a look at the group EBIT, if we would include the biomass write-down, this number would be negative in the fourth quarter of EUR 18 million. The total revenue amounted to EUR 47 million, which is a significant increase from the corresponding quarter last year. Cost levels remained stable compared to the corresponding quarter last year, but increased from last quarter mainly due to the additional harvesting cost with the extra well-boat and extra shift in our harvesting station. The average price achievement increased from last quarter, as expected.
The average price achievement amounted to around EUR 6.9 per kilo compared to EUR 6.2 per kilo in the last quarter. The operational EBIT adjusted for the biomass write-down reached EUR 5 million, and EBIT per kilo amounted to EUR 0.80. Over to the financial summary. Total assets decreased in the quarter by EUR 27 million, which is mainly due to the biomass write-down. The book value of biological assets decreased by roughly EUR 25 million during the quarter, and that's including roughly EUR 23 million in biomass write-down. Total liabilities decreased by EUR 6.3 million during the quarter, mainly due to decreased deferred tax liability and lower payables balance and installments of term loans. Equity ratio remains around 56%, stable from last quarter, and it was 57%, so our financial health remains robust. Here you can see high-level analysis of the net interest-bearing debt, which increased by EUR 8 million during the quarter.
The biomass write-down is evident when you look at the EBITDA and working capital investments during the quarter. EBITDA was negative of roughly EUR 15 million, and net investments in working capital was negative of EUR 17 million. Capex investment in the quarter amounted to EUR 5.6 million, making the total capex investment during 2024 reaching EUR 23.5 million, which is slightly lower than the EUR 25 million guidance for the year. Financial items amounted to EUR 4.8 million, where financial cost is the main contributor. The syndicate loan, the balance to the syndicate loan amounted to around EUR 163 million of total facility of EUR 180 million at the end of the quarter. We were in breach of certain loan covenants in Q4, for which we obtained waiver from our financing partners. Roy mentioned earlier that we have initiated the refinancing process. As it stands now, the current syndicate facility expires in April next year.
We here at Kaldvik have initiated refinancing talks with our financing partners. The cooperation with the syndicate has been good, and we are in good communication and cooperation with our financing partners, and we expect to finalize the refinancing before the end of the second quarter this year. This was the financial update. Now we take the strategic update, and we announced just before Christmas that the company had entered into a non-binding term sheet for potential acquisition of certain strategic assets in our value chain. The term sheet comprises acquisition of a box factory that is located in Djúpivogur, close to our harvesting station. The box factory is split into two companies, Mossi, which owns the building that is hosting the box producer, Djúpskel, which is, like I say, the producer of the boxes.
The term sheet comprises of all shares in both Mossi and Djúpskel, along with 33% shares in our harvesting station, which would secure 100% ownership to Kaldvik, as we own 2/3 as it stands now. The purchase price for the box factory and the remaining shares in Búlandstindur amounts to NOK 190 million. That is indicative purchase price amounts to NOK 190 million. The benefit for Kaldvik is clear in this transaction, as we expect packaging cost to reduce by approximately EUR 3 million annually based on the 20,000-ton harvest. The benefit will then increase with increased harvest volume in Kaldvik. The process is ongoing and expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year. Now I hand it over back to our CEO, Roy-Tore Rikardsen. Thank you.
Thank you, Róbert. A little bit update on our new license in Seyðisfjörður. The new license in Seyðisfjörður includes a total capacity of 10,000 tons, maximum allowed biomass, and this is divided into 6,400 tons MAB for fertile production and 3,500 tons MAB for sterile. We starte`d the application process in 2016, and now currently MAST is reviewing the hearing process, and we expect the final issuing of the licenses in Q2 this year. The new production area presents a significant strategic opportunity for us, increasing our overall capacity, allowing us to meet growing demand and provide us with increased flexibility in our operation. Importantly, this is a new area, and it will help us reduce biological risk at sea, contributing to sustainability and health of our operation.
In conclusion, the new license in Seyðisfjörður is a major step forward for our company, enhancing our capacity, flexibility, and reducing biological risk, and we are excited about the opportunity this will bring. Milestone one, 30,000 ton. Our first milestone is 30,000 ton, and we have been striving to reach this since we reestablished after the ISA outbreak in 2021, 2022, and to have a run rate production of 30,000 ton, you have to release between 7 million-8 million smolt yearly, and we have not been succeeding in that yet.
We still have the focus on the target and have done a lot of action to reach it, and we are fully invested to deal with this in our value chain, and with all this capacity, we also have a fixed cost base for 30,000 ton, and last year we harvested 15,000 ton, and this year we will harvest 21,500 ton, and you can see that the fixed cost on the chart to the right is coming down with increased volume. Kaldvik's potential. Here you see some of the initiatives we are looking into to go beyond milestone number one. The Kaldvik team will continue working to produce bigger smolt, what gives us a shorter production cycle in sea, and therefore also reducing our risk.
To come down to a two-year cycle all over, now we have a three-year cycle in production, and going down to the two-year cycle, that will become more CapEx demanding also in the future. We will start utilizing the sterile licenses in 2027, which is an MAB of 12,800 tons and give an annual production of 3,000-4,000 tons. We will come back when we have more on this topic. We are also one step closer to get the 10,000-ton license in Seyðisfjörður, and we hope to have the licenses in place, as we have said earlier, in the first half of 2025. We are looking into optimalization of our production areas. That means utilizing of our MAB, and in total, we see a potential of producing 45,000 tons in Kaldvik. Outlook and summary.
I think we start with the summary and the biological incident, with the increased mortality in Q4 2024 and projected into Q1 2025. We also ended with a biomass write-down of EUR 23.5 million. We have a 10,000-ton license with pending approval in Seyðisfjörður, and as Róbert mentioned, Kaldvik is in discussion with financing partners regarding refinancing, and the plan is to refinance in Q2 2025. On the outlook, we see a good opportunity globally for premium salmon, and our new sales team, they are developing the US and the Asia market. When it comes to the harvest outlook, our harvest in 2024 was 15,000 tons, and our guiding for 2025 is 21,500 tons. In the first quarter, we guide 5,500 tons.
When it comes to the smolt output in 2025, we have planned an output of 7.5 million, and after our new facility in Lännorth, we have at least a smolt production capacity of 8 million smolt. We are now open for questions. Yes. We are over to the Q&A session.
Q&A session, yes.
Róbert.
We have had some questions about the biomass write-down, and to be clear, the biological incidents in Q4 and the consequences linked to winter wounds are giving increased mortality in Q1 as well, and the expected mortality is included in the biomass write-down made in the fourth quarter and reflected in the 2024 numbers. We had another question regarding the smolt release. Were the 1.2 million smolts released, or was it decided to not release them to sea due to lower sea temperature?
Yes. A part of the 1.2 million was not released, and as we have stated earlier, we had a high mortality on the site in Stígur in the fourth quarter. It is partly not released and mortality.
We've been asked to state the biomass tons in sea at the end of the year. Roy?
Yeah, I think it was approximately 21,000 tons at the end of last year.
Yeah. Questions. CapEx guidance for 2025. Like we mentioned in the presentation earlier, we have initiated refinancing talks or dialogue with our financing partners, and we are waiting with the CapEx guidance for 2025 once we have some concrete result from that talks. We will come back with a guidance, hopefully in Q1 for the 2025 financial year. Should we expect similar underlying cost levels quarter-over-quarter in the first quarter? I would say so. Like I mentioned earlier, we have included the biomass write-down for the mortality in Q1 in the Q4 numbers, so the cost level quarter-over-quarter in Q1 should be stable.
The contract share for Q1, I guess we don't have the numbers in front of us now, but historically we are somewhere close to 25% of our revenues are from fixed contracts, and it is likely to be close to that, maybe 20%-25%. Do you see the extraordinary winter wounds and smolt survival problems as over now and with the planned harvest in Q1, or do you expect challenges to continue also into the second quarter?
I mean that the extraordinary winter wounds and mortality are over in the end of Q1, so we see already an increase in temperature also in the sea, so it's going in the right direction.
Yeah. And then we had the question here regarding the transaction, the box factory transaction, and updates on that. Regarding the process itself, this has been a pretty standard process. Both buyer and seller have been using external advisors both on the valuation and the negotiation of the transaction. We are currently now waiting for final report from Deloitte on the due diligence, and our auditor is also reviewing the transaction. This is expected to be concluded within the first quarter this year. We have more questions. Yeah. We have answered this. Could you comment on the split between spring and fall in smolt output?
This year?
Yeah.
Yeah. I think the split is spring and summer, I think it's around 60%, so yeah, and 40% in September and October.
Okay. I think we have covered most of the questions. If there are any questions that we failed to answer here, please contact me after this session.
Yeah. Thank you all for watching. Looking forward to see you again when we are presenting the result for the first quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you.