Welcome to Lerøy Seafood Group's first quarter presentation 2025. My name is Henning Beltestad, and I'm the CEO of Lerøy Seafood Group. With me today, I have Sjur Malm, CFO, who will take us through the key financial numbers. First of all, I will take you through the highlights, and then Sjur will take us through the key financial highlights. I will come back and talk about outlook going forward and to indicate what we believe about the future. First of all, Lerøy is creating the world's most efficient and sustainable value chain for seafood. That is our task every day we go to work. Our fully integrated value chain is our competitive advantage, and we really see that today with increased supply, that this is a good advantage for us when the volume is getting bigger.
Our customer is seeking sustainability and health quality, traceability, stability, availability, and convenience. We believe that our value prediction can give that in speed and cost efficiency, reliability and trust, product category innovation, and traceability and quality assurance and clear ESG commitments. Our fully integrated is a perfect match for our key customers. About the highlights of the quarter. We've had a strong biological performance starting to show results. Spot prices for salmon and trout well below last year. Record earnings in the VAP S&D segment, 12 months rolling. Low quotas in wild catch offset by significant price increase. Positive cost development in farming expected to continue in 2025. The board has proposed a dividend of NOK 2.5 per share. End of quarter, the operational EBIT of the quarter is NOK 1,049,000,000, which is a good performance compared to first quarter 2024.
Lerøy is reporting in three segments: farming, wild catch, upsales, and distribution. We start with the farming highlights this quarter. This has been a quarter where spot benchmark prices is about NOK 90 lower compared to first quarter 2024. We have seen clear improvement in biology starting to show in our harvest result. We have seen the highest net production in sea in a first quarter ever, reduced mortality, declining cost, and higher superior share. We see positive biological development quarter to date in second quarter 2025, encouraging for cost and volume development in 2025. Shielding technology is showing good results. If we go into the different regions and the companies, we see Lerøy Aurora. We have had a strong biological development, a record net growth in first quarter, high survival rate, continued license utilization.
Quarter on quarter cost decrease and a lower cost expected quarter on quarter in second quarter 2025. Also expect lower cost in 2025 compared to 2024 and keep our estimated volume of 50,000 tons. Clearly, a good performance in the quarter and also good expectations for further improvement going forward, even though good results behind us. If we look at the harvest volume, it's about 7,000 tons compared to 6,000 tons last year and an average weight of 4 kilos compared to 4.6 kilos last year. An EBIT all inclusive of about NOK 30 in the quarter compared to NOK 44 same quarter last year. We have a mid region, Lerøy Midt. Also here, strong biological performance, record net growth also in this region in the quarter, high survival rates, continued high license utilization.
We see continued positive results from shielding technology and the quarter-on-quarter decrease in cost on good biological development and expect slight higher cost into second quarter 2025. The estimated harvest volume is kept at 75,000 tons. In total, in the quarter, we harvested 16,000 tons compared to about 13,700 tons in the same quarter last year. Also higher average weights with 4.4 kilos compared to 4.1 kilos. Operational EBIT value chain of NOK 32, which is about the same level as first quarter 2024. Lerøy Sjøtroll, south western region. Really glad to see the improvements in this region. Significant increase in growth rates, high survival rates, and high license utilization into 2025. The biological improvement is showing in results. Cost down quarter-on-quarter. Expect cost at the same level in second quarter, but then you see significant potential for cost reduction in 2025 as a whole.
We are really glad to see the development in Lerøy Sjøtroll. The estimated harvest volume is about 70,000 tons. The harvested volume in a quarter is close to 15,000 tons compared to 6,700 tons. A great increase in volume in this quarter and an EBIT all inclusive of NOK 18 compared to NOK 9 in first quarter last year. Great improvement. Scottish Sea Farms, 50% owned by Lerøy. Here also, increase in harvest volume with good harvest weights. Strong biological development with next generation of fish performing well. Significant year-on-year decrease in price realization in this quarter. Volume in 2025 is impacted by reorganizing site structure and long-term potential significantly higher than the level that we see on 32,000 tons, which is the estimate for 2025. In this quarter, we achieved an operational EBIT of NOK 9 compared to NOK 19 first quarter last year.
The main reason for the decrease is the price realization. If we look at the farming and the guiding numbers, to summarize that, 2025, Lerøy Aurora 50,000 tons, Lerøy Midt 75,000 tons, and Lerøy Sjøtroll 70,000 tons and a total of 195,000 tons. We all know about our target, which is 200,000 tons. We believe if we continuously work with improvements like we do today, our target should be within reach. Right now, we are in a good position and have a great fundament for achieving our goal of 200. Our share of Scottish Sea Farms is 16,000 tons, so a total of 211,000 tons. Wild catch, of course, a challenging segment at the moment because of significant quota reduction. The catch volume for trawling fleet, raw material price and volume in the land industry is affected by these reductions. 2025 will be challenging.
Higher prices have partly offset the impact of lower quotas for trawling, but still it's really challenging for the industry to take out the increased price level and the reduction in availability of fish to be at a very high level in this segment in 2025. Quota in 2025 is down 32%. 25% stems from overall industry quota reduction and 7% due to reallocation from the trawler fleet to the coastal fleet under new regulations. Haddock quota is down 2% in 2025. EBIT in a quarter, operational EBIT in a quarter is about NOK 150 million. If we see at the prices for the key species, the cod price is close to NOK 80, the haddock is close to NOK 60, and Saithe is about NOK 30, which is a strong increase in price level compared to same quarter last year.
The wild catch quotas and the catch volumes for first quarter, we catch the 3,600-ton cod, 5,400-ton saithe, 3,400-ton haddock, and a total of 90,000-ton compared to 24,000-ton last year. The good thing is to look at the remaining quotas compared to 2024. We have 5,300-ton cod compared to 6,000-ton last year. Saithe, 13,000-ton compared to 10,000-ton, saithe and haddock 2,700-ton. We have more remaining quota this year compared to same period last year. Taking into consideration that a fairly good first quarter and the remaining quota means that we are in a good situation compared to last year if we take the quota situation into consideration. Then sales processing. We have operations in 17 countries and sales to more than 80 markets all over the world. This has been investments done over 20 years.
We feel now that we really have a strong position in all the key markets for seafood. The new thing in this segment is the branch office in South Korea, in Vietnam, and in Thailand. The main reason for this is to take out the potential of this market and to drive the innovation and the market development together with our partners in this market. This is also very crucial for our trout operation that we have to create new markets for trout from Norway. The VAP sales and distribution had a strong quarter. We continue the positive development in the segment with operational EBIT of first quarter of NOK 212 million compared to NOK 176 million first quarter 2024, so a great improvement. In first quarter 2024 and first half 2024, profitability supported by the high capacity utilization of Norwegian processing capacity following a high share of quality downgrades.
This year, there is less quality downgrades. We see now that the profitability growth is more from the capacity utilization and high demand in our downstream units in this segment. We see that we're really improving in mainly all of our operation out in the market. There's been a strong start of the year with a record 12-month rolling operation. There's a strong demand in the end markets, positive development in emerging markets, strong positioning with strategic customers globally, and effects of structural improvements really start to work in a different operation. We have expectations for continued positive profitability trend in 2025. I feel that we have a really strong position out in all our key markets and a team that's really focused on building the markets and the category for seafood. Thank you, Henning.
We are 6,000 employees, and we work daily on creating sustainable food for our global population. We also work with structural improvement initiatives. While we were not happy with the results we posted, perhaps particularly in 2023, and we through 2024 have talked about signs of improvement, we are pleased to report these quarterly figures showing that the improvements are starting also to show in the financial results. At this slide, we can see the key value drivers on the lateral line. We must keep in mind that the spot price for salmon is down NOK 19 compared to a corresponding quarter last year. Despite that, you can see that the margin through the value chain for salmon is more or less unchanged. That is very positive, and that is a reflection of a significant cost cut in farming, and in particular in Lerøy Sjøtroll.
It's a reflection of significant improvement in quality and share of superior. It's an increase in harvest weights. You can also see the biological improvement in the harvested figure, which is up 50% almost compared to last year. It's also a reflection of good work in our downstream operations. If you look on the wild catch part, we see margins are more or less even with last year. Volumes are down following a lower quota. In this, it's important to highlight what's written about in the report that we have a negative inventory effect of around NOK 15 million in Q1 this year compared to last year. When that inventory is sold, it will lead to also a profit. All in all, a good quarter also in wild catch given the low quotas. This sums up to the EBIT Henning already has mentioned of NOK 1 billion and 50 million.
The result we are pleased with given the price development, and we also see there's a healthy development in EPS. The return on capital employed was around 15% this quarter. At the balance sheet, I will focus on what's changed. You see compared to last year, we have a higher standing biomass, which is building working capital compared to last year. You see biological asset cost up just above NOK 800 million. We also see the effect of the investments we are doing in the targeted initiatives. I will return to them, but you see tangible fixed assets are up. You also see the size of balance needed to run this operation. Total asset of around NOK 40 billion. We believe we have a strong balance sheet, investment grade rating, equity ratio of just above 50%. Looking down on cash flow, we are pleased with the cash flow development this quarter.
There is a working capital build compared to the corresponding quarter last year, but compared to fourth quarter, our standing biomass has remained high, and we have held good working capital control while operation in downstream is growing. It is a strong operational cash flow. I return to investments, and you see the effect of financing cost and the IFRS 16 effects. In sum, net interest bearing debt is reduced by NOK 700 million this quarter. This shows our planned CapEx. There are no changes, but it highlights our priorities also. We have a maintenance CapEx of around NOK 1 billion. It has increased measured in NOK due to weaker Norwegian krone. We are investing in all parts of our operation. We are developing the white fish operation, and now we are coming to an end when it comes to the upgrades of these factories.
We are investing also downstream, but we are particularly investing in farming, in initiatives in shielding technology, and in improving quality of smolt. We believe the results this quarter are showing that these investments are having good returns. There is a debate, particularly in Norway, to which degree this industry makes an economic footprint. This slide is just highlighting in 2024 the fact that our 3,900 employees and our activity in Norway contributed in total with around NOK 2.5 billion in tax in 2024. In addition to that, there are significant ripple effects through our NOK 18 billion in acquisitions from companies all around Norway, as the dotted line shows. We see the total value creation in Norway is close to NOK 15 billion and generating around 10,000 jobs. This is an important industry in Norway, and Lerøy is important both for Norway and for many coastal communities.
There is a new aquaculture paper. In that paper, there are suggestions on quite significant changes in how the licensing regime in Norway will work. We support the view of the industry organization Sjømat Norge, which basically is that there is a need for more evaluation and considering consequences before there is any major principal decision being made. We also believe the development we are showing in these results, which Henning will return to in a few minutes, they are showing that there are incentives and it is possible to do quite a lot of positive work also in the current regulation. With that, Henning, I give the word back to you on Outlook.
Thank you. I will go through the Outlook going forward. We start with our strategic targets. I will not go into details about all of these.
We try to give you a kind of reporting every quarter now how we are on the way to reach the targets. We feel that after first quarter that we are in a good position for the rest of the quarters for 2025 and also for what we're going to achieve going forward after that. We focus, of course, keeping our long-term goals and objectives out there at the same time as we focus a lot on the operational improvements in order to get through our targets. Where are we? If we look at VAP sales and distribution, we have a target of NOK 1.25 billion EBIT target. Where are we? The last 12 months rolling is about NOK 924 million. One year ago, we were at NOK 723 million. We have the directions towards our goals this year, and we work hard with the short-term action and also long-term actions.
I don't go in details with that, but we have a good drive in the whole segment, and people are motivated, and I'm really impressed by what they achieve every quarter going forward also. We work hard, and we believe that this is achievable. If we look at the farming, we have a target of 200,000 tonnes. We were at about 171,200 tonnes last year. That means an improvement or increased volume of close to 30,000 tons. This is going to be done through operational efficiency, through adjustment or improvements in raw, in smolt production, and new technology in sea. Is this achievable? Yes, we believe it's achievable. This has been a long-term program to achieve this goal. This is showing where we will get the results on harvested fish from the different initiatives that's done on genetics, raw, smolt, shielding technology, and the implementation of Lerøy Way.
We see that we are on track on the improvement as we expected for first half. Hopefully, there is no guarantee, but we will see greater improvement for the second half of 2025. If we look at the first quarter with the total improvements in the farming segment, it's been a very good quarter for us compared to the average of the last five years. We have a net growth of 30% higher. Mortality is 33% lower. Superior share is 11% higher, and the biomass at sea is 7% higher. This shows that we are taking out the improvements as expected. If we look at the shielding technology, we started to harvest much more in the first quarter. Now we report on harvested fish of shielded and not shielded. If we compare the harvested fish, we see that we reduced lice treatment of 75%.
The superior share increased by 20%, and the average harvest weight increased by 8%. That's a great improvement, and the results are really promising. We believe that what we have done in new technology, and especially in submerged technology, is making better fish health and improving the way we operate the farming segment. If we look at farming shielding technology, increased share of harvest volume from shielding technology in first quarter, we were at about 30%, and plan for 2025 is about 35%. We see the total production of salmon and trout of Lerøy. We are focusing on three technologies: submerged farming, semi-contained farming, and LASA de-lousing in north of Norway. We invested a lot into this kind of technology that we really believe in, and we see that this is showing more and more good results.
At the end, we take up the supply side and expectations for 2025 and also 2026. The global supply growth of 6.4% for 2025 and about 2% for 2026. We have also seen the last couple of months that we have had a tremendous increase in supply. The big question is, will this last? If we look at the monthly harvest volumes from Europe, we see that we had an increase of close to 17% the first four months. If you look at April, it was up almost 30%. We see that the growth compared to last year will be lower going forward. We expect that we build a lot of markets now, which will make a huge potential for the demand in the second half of the year. We also see on the market sides, the markets are taking out the volume.
There is both in EU, other markets, and also in the US. It's a stable growth in the markets the first three months. If we look at, dig into the other markets, we see especially one market that is really speeding up, and that is China. China has a huge potential also going forward. We see that in April and in May, that the growth in the Chinese market is three to four times what it was in the same weeks last year. China is really taking a strong position as the number one market from Norway. That's good to see. Also, to summarize shortly about the different segments, farming, we have had a good period behind us. We also see that the position with the fish in the sea and what is coming forward is in a good position. That feels good.
catch, of course, challenging with the quarter situation, but we are doing what we can out of the reduced quarter that we have, and we feel that we are doing a good job. VAP sales and distribution is showing big momentum, more available supply, and also building markets both in Asia and also in Europe and other markets. We have a strong belief in what we're going to do in this segment and all the three different segments going forward. That's what I have. Thank you very much.