Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of the fourth quarter for Marine Harvest. Together with me to present today, I have our CFO, Ivan Vindheim. He will take us into the financial accounts shortly. First, the highlights of the fourth quarter. This has been a strong quarter for Marine Harvest. Our operational EBIT was just north of NOK 1 billion. This is also a quarter that could have been better. We had challenges in terms of drop in prices in the Americas, quite significant, but also biological challenges in Europe. One thing that stood out this quarter for us was the conditional terms agreement with AquaChile. We are now entering into a phase where we are trying to merge the two companies in Chile. We expect that to end towards the third quarter, and this will form the second-largest aquaculture company in the world.
It's quite a significant merger we are talking about in this business. Some happy news on the feed side. We have been fine-tuning our feed mill and been able to see a production here in about 80% of what we need in Norway. That's, in fact, very, very good news for Marine Harvest, and this operation is turning out to be a very good investment for us. Quarterly dividend, the board has decided that to be NOK 1.2 per share. That will be paid out shortly. Some key financials. This quarter was a record quarter in terms of turnover for Marine Harvest. Ended up at NOK 6.8 billion. The harvest volume at 105,000 t, also a good volume for fourth quarter for Marine Harvest.
If you look at the year-to-date numbers, because this is obviously at the end of the year, we ended at NOK 25 billion or NOK 25.4 billion in sales, an operational EBIT of NOK 4.2 billion or NOK 4.254 billion, and a harvest volume close to 419,000 t. All good. It's a record year for Marine Harvest. We are very satisfied with 2014. The market, two distinct different behaviors in the marketplace. In the European market, we saw a slight price decrease in the fourth quarter in the spot price. This is due to the weakening of the Russian ruble and also the challenges with Russia and Ukraine and their power of purchase in Russia. That has an impact in the fourth quarter, especially towards the end in Europe. Even though we had a slight supply decrease in Europe, we saw a slight drop in prices.
In the Americas, we had a huge supply increase from Chile in this quarter and very low prices both for Canadian salmon and Chilean salmon. This stopped towards the end of the quarter. We saw slight increase in the price towards the end of the quarter in the Americas. They are still at low levels. Marine Harvest price achievement on Norwegian salmon, we achieved just north of the spot price or of the NOS price that we compare with. In Scottish salmon, we had very good contracts for the quarter. The price achievement was excellent. The price achievement and how we compare here, it's 3.42 NOK over the NOS price for our Scottish price, Scottish salmon. That's the standard we compare to. In Canada, about on target.
On Chilean fish, because we have a good market in Brazil, we had a really good price achievement in this region. The superior share on and/or above target in all regions, basically. To explain the development of the operational EBIT compared to the fourth quarter of 2013. If you start with that, which was basically on the same number, it was NOK 1,037 million. The difference in this quarter, NOK 84 million increase on the feed side. Operational EBIT in the fourth quarter of NOK 61 million. We had just started, so we had reported a loss in the fourth quarter of 2013 of NOK 23 million. That explains the difference. The main issue here is farming and the reduced EBIT in the farming division for Marine Harvest.
That's explained 65% by the decrease of prices in Americas, Chile and the U.S., and 35% cost increase in Europe. The cost increase in Europe is basically sea lice, AGD, both in Scotland and in most Norwegian regions. That's the main drivers in that number. Morpol, as we saw, had a better price achievement compared to the fourth quarter of 2013. The VAP division turned a negative number of 37 million NOK in the fourth quarter last year to a positive number of 36 million NOK in the fourth quarter 2014, and that explains the difference of 73 million NOK. Morpol increased their performance with 19 million NOK compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, and we ended up at NOK 1,032 million. Close to the same number. That with increased cost and a huge reduction in prices in the Americas.
This shows that our model with balancing out the portfolio and being an integrated protein company works pretty well. I will go into the different segments and the different units. Start with Norway and Norway farming. Higher absolute prices, we achieved that because of good contracts there. We were above the reference price. In terms of contribution here, positive contribution both from sales and marketing and also from the VAP divisions. The big number that stands out on the negative side is certainly sea lice mitigation cost. An increase of NOK 1.67 per kilo in the fourth quarter. That just shows what we have been saying all along, that the sea lice situation in Norway is serious and it needs to be taken serious, both by government, which we see example of now with authorities taking action, but also by the industry.
We have a big job to do to correct this. It is possible to correct, but that takes discipline and also that we go into the issue. We just have to stop believing that this will go away because it increases quarter-over-quarter. Some issues linked to AGD, but the main number here is by far sea lice. If we look at the sales or the contract portfolio, we had contracted just north of 30,000 t in the fourth quarter, closing in on 50% of our harvest volume. Going forward, we have contracted slightly less, but at good terms. We have a contract share in the first quarter of 35% and in the second quarter at 32%. Obviously, this is not an exact number. We do contracts as we speak, and it's a rolling number, so likely to increase over time.
Slightly lower contract share in the coming quarters based on our market view. Into the regions in Norway, which are a separate region with their own hatcheries, with their own farms, and with their own processing plants, and kept separate from a biological point of view. We see quite a big difference in performance. In this quarter, the best-performing region was Region North with an EBIT per kilo of just north of 15 NOK per kilo. That's, I think, a very good performance. On cost, we know it's among the best. Region West as well, very good quarter in the fourth quarter. Over the year, since this is the end of the year, Region West was the best region in Marine Harvest in 2014. Made almost 1 billion NOK in one region, which is very good. We see the difference there.
Region Mid, they are at NOK 10.5 per kg. Region South at NOK 8.8 per kg. If we look into these regions, Region South hampered by PD, CMS, sea lice, and treatment losses. Region Mid, high cost also due to lice, AGD, and losses in treatments. That is the downside here, and that really shows where we have to go in and solve issues. You have pockets in these regions that's also performing well, which is interesting. We know that we can correct it, but it's a huge job and it has to be taken serious. That's why we say, do not add to this problem. Do not add growth into this industry before we start to get a grip on this issue that can cause this huge variation in cost. Scotland, the same situation basically.
Lot of treatments on the site, and we harvested also from sites on the Western Isles in this quarter that was hit hard with the sea lice issue. We expect lower result also in the first half, mainly so in the first quarter of 2015. What we see here is that the next generation that will be harvested after this will be better. Come next summer, spring, we'll get into a better harvest generation. We announced this also in the last quarterly presentation, but it's the biggest disappointment in this presentation for me. Canada doing very well. On the cost side, improving. Biologically wise, improving. The price here has dropped tremendously. The big difference here is all about price. That is in fact the same for our Chilean operation, broke even, but the price dropped tremendously in the quarter. Cost-wise, we are doing well.
Full cost in box, it's US$4.5. The price in this quarter was even lower. The spot price was at US$4 per kilo, US$4.0. Our contracts and our operations in the U.S. into Americas put it up a little bit. It's important to remember a significant drop in prices there. That's on the back of, obviously, huge supply increase. It's expected. It's not a revolution, but it's how it goes when you increase the supply with close to 20% in a quarter. One point here that's important to comment on is that our Chilean operation, we will have to report as a discontinued operation from Q1 2015. This is technical, and this is how you have to report it going forward when you are in a merger, which we are in Chile right now.
Obviously, we will keep a close eye on Chile going forward as well, and we will report Chile, but just keep in mind that it will be reported separately from the other regions going forward. Ireland, Faroe Islands, we made a little bit money in Ireland. It's mostly organic salmon, but not a lot. It's high cost, but also high prices. In the Faroe Islands, operation EBIT of NOK 13.15 in this quarter. That's decent. It's not fantastic, but it's decent. In the Faroe Islands, we are out of fish for almost the remaining of 2015 and start harvesting again here in towards the end of 2015 in the fourth quarter. Bear in mind, this is a small region for us, but extremely profitable.
Over the year, we made way north of NOK 100 million on a few thousand ton in the Faroe Islands, so important for Marine Harvest in that way. We go on to the value-added operation in Europe. We saw an effect here of lower raw material prices in EUR because of the weakening of the NOK. Positive effect from restructuring starts to show up, and we basically turn the operation at least to the positive, even though we expect a result here in the area of operational EBIT result of 5% margin. We're still not there, but we are on our way. Part of the integration process is continuing in Europe. What we do in Europe is we combine Morpol and the Morpol management to take control of all our smoke business in Europe which makes sense.
We also have one fresh division that only focusing on fresh and one frozen division. That's the three segments we will have going forward. We will focus on each individual factories, but combine these into one unit under one management. We will start reporting that from the first quarter of 2015. Morpol slightly better than last year's result, ended up at an EBIT of NOK 81 million compared to NOK 63 million last year. Not fantastic result, but decent. Some unfavorable raw material purchases in the quarter. If we had got those right, we would have done even better. On the cost side, a good performance. Also goes for as these two units will be combined as we go forward. The fish feed business, as I explained in the first slide or the third slide, an operational EBIT of NOK 61 million.
What's even more impressive for us is that we are able to supply our own operation with approximately 80% of our feed need. This shows that we do not need to expand in Norway. That will not be our next step. That investment we will do elsewhere. We will come back to that investment if we will do it in Chile or in Scotland. That will be our next step into this division. Impressive performance in the quarter. Remember, we compare the prices this division get is the exact same price as we pay when we buy feed from other producers. That is just their credit to the result. When we look at the research, we have finalized now two studies on growth and feed conversion rate using our own feed, and they have very favorable results.
Our aim with this division is to integrate feed into farming and get better growth, better feed conversion rate, and also use it in terms of improving the quality of the product. This is more than 50% of our cost and the most important part in terms of producing a salmon, it's what's in the feed. So far, they are doing well. Just to say a little bit on the first quarter, it's low season for feed, and we are still in contract with or have contract obligations, so we do not expect the same result in the first quarter as we saw in the fourth quarter. Going forward, this machine will make wonders for Marine Harvest. Ivan. It's all about financials and go more into details on those.
Thank you, Alf, and good morning, everybody. As usual, we start with the P&L. The fourth quarter saw us make a turnover of NOK 6.863 billion, which is up a modest 2% from the fourth quarter 2013. For 2014 full-year, NOK 25.5 billion, which is a record high for Marine Harvest. The lion's share is Morpol, but we are growing all the entities more or less we are invested into. We are very satisfied with the growth in 2014 turnover-wise. Operational EBIT, which is the profit item we follow, NOK 1.032 billion this quarter, almost the same the fourth quarter last year, but NOK four point almost three billion for 2014 full-year, which is up 32% compared to last year. All-time high for Marine Harvest and extremely satisfied results. If we go further down in the P&L, we focus on the big items.
The first one we see there is the fair value adjustment of biomass, +NOK 387 million due to increase in the salmon price throughout the quarter compared to the third quarter this year or 2014, but also increase in biomass. Income from associated companies, NOK 55 million, which is Nova Sea. Nova Sea had another good quarter. Underlying profit, EBIT per kilo, NOK 11.0 on 11,600 t. You can find the rest of the details in the appendix. Once again, another good quarter by Nova Sea. Net financial items as high as -NOK 1.052 billion this quarter, heavily impacted by the weakening of the NOK. Net currency effects of NOK 393 million. The rise in the share price increased the valuation of the convertible bonds, the two convertible bonds we have, which impacted the P&L NOK 440 million negatively. Net interest expenses at a normal level, NOK 146 million for the quarter.
Underlying earnings per share, NOK 1.62 full-year, NOK 7.01, which is up 32% compared to 2013, which is also satisfactory. Net cash flow per share this quarter negative because of substantially tie-up in working capital. As you all know, the fourth quarter is always the most challenging quarter cash-wise because of the increase in working capital that quarter. The increase will, at a large extent, be released in the 1st half of the year and the most of it in the second quarter. Normally, the 1st quarter is quite neutral. I guess you are all familiar with the seasonality within this industry. Operational EBIT per kilo, all-inclusive, ex-feed of course, NOK 9.22 this quarter, NOK 10.24 for 2014 full-year, which is also up compared to 2013, NOK 9.75. 2014 was a very good year for Marine Harvest, the best year so far in the company's history.
Return on capital employed approximately 20% for the fourth quarter, the same number for 2014 as a whole and a little bit up compared to 2013. Much about the P&L. Over to the balance sheet. We are growing and accordingly, our balance sheet is growing. Now it amounts to approximately NOK 37 billion compared to almost NOK 34 billion at year-end last year. Equity ratio, 40%. Net interest-bearing debt, approximately NOK 9.3 billion. Net interest-bearing debt we will dig into in the next slide. We started at NOK 7.2 billion when we started the quarter. Cash from operations NOK 534 million, which is low compared to EBITDA, but the reason is the already mentioned tie-up in working capital due to seasonality. CapEx, NOK 447 million. Cash effect from the acquisition of the Acuinova, the assets we bought from Acuinova, NOK 727 million.
Consequently, NOK 1.2 billion in investments in the fourth quarter. Net interest and the payable effect of it, NOK 150 million. Dividend distributed, NOK 471 million. It's not exactly the same number as what we declared for dividend after the third quarter. The variance is a withholding tax. There are some phasings there, always. The FX effect in the fourth quarter, NOK 845 million negative. We are funding the company more or less in euros and some dollars. We are reporting in NOK, that leads to FX hits, especially in Norwegian kroner when we see such fluctuations as we saw in the fourth quarter. This in total gives NOK 9.3 billion in net interest-bearing debt. Cash flow guidance for 2015. We foresee at this point a working capital tie-up of NOK 900 million and a total CapEx program of NOK 1.7 billion.
Of which NOK 1.0 billion is pure maintenance. We are growing the company. We want to continue this growth. In order to support this growth, we have to invest into working capital and fixed assets. That's the name of the game in this industry. It's a very capital-intensive industry. If you break down the structural investments of NOK 0.7 billion, the lion's share, i.e., NOK 0.5 billion is smolt and cleaner fish. Smolt is the very foundation of a farming operation. Interest expenses, NOK 300 million. Bear in mind that we have two convertible bonds with very low coupons. The payable interest expenses as we go along are at a quite modest level. Tax payables, NOK 650 million. The lion's share of that amount is to be paid in the first and the second quarter, i.e., the first half of the year. The dividend, Alf- Helge has already commented on it.
We have released a stock notice now on the payment dates, ex-dividend dates. In that regard, we only refer to the press release. We don't go into details here. Dividend policy. We have changed it, or the board has changed it. We have gone from a net interest-bearing debt over equity target to a debt target. This we have done in order to align what we do in practice with what we formally say we do. We have operated with a targeted debt level for a long time, now we have found the right time to also do this formally. The debt targets we have chosen to give in euros. All the time we are managing our cash flow in euros, it's fair also to operate with a euro target. The number is EUR 1.1 billion.
That corresponds to EUR 1.85 per kilo, and then I'm talking about farming kilo. Consequently, EUR 814 million of EUR 1.1 billion is related to farming. Some debt is allocated to consumer products and feed. Plus, we are leveraging the Acuinova acquisition 100%. That leverage we will take gradually down. The number related to the Acuinova acquisition is $125 million. Not euros, but U.S. dollars. If you use an historical average EUR rate against the Norwegian kroner at 1.85, corresponds to approximately NOK 15 per kilo, which I guess is quite familiar to many of you. In practice, we haven't changed anything. We have just changed the formal policy. If there are any questions to this, then we'll answer it afterwards. It's just to contact us. This target will stand until we merge Marine Harvest Chile with AquaChile.
The tentative closing date is in the third quarter. We will come back with a revised debt target. Until the third quarter, this target stands. On financing, nothing has changed since last time we spoke. I think we just flip to the next slide and go from financials to supply. Total supply in the fourth quarter was as expected at 3.9%. We gave a forecast when we released our third quarter results, this is in line with that range. As expected, a reduction in Europe and strong growth in Americas in the fourth quarter as well. Alf-Helge mentioned that there has been an oversupply in Americas in 2014, that's definitely correct. Total supply growth for 2014 is over 20%. In practice, they have killed the market, the result has been very poor prices.
At the moment, we are below break-even price in Chile, also for the best farmers. Quite a different story in Americas as what we have in Europe. We have seen that the prices have started to pick up again. We have lent season in the U.S. We think that the prices will continue to increase. At the moment, the prices are challenging. In that context, we are very satisfied with the results we have in Americas in the fourth quarter. They managed to reduce costs and actually make some money if we include a Canadian operation and at least to us that's impressive. They have done a great job. It's very hard to beat the market. Over to demand. In general, we would say that the demand is very good. We have seen some difficulties in France.
You all know about the Russian ban and the effect of it. It has definitely hampered the price development in Europe in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, this will be offset gradually as we go along. When you take away 6% of the global market, it has an effect. It doesn't go over by night. Brazil has continued to develop well. China, unfortunately, impacted by trade issues with Norway. We saw an escalating in the fourth quarter. As we can see from the numbers here, they are negative. For Japan, that number is heavily impacted by phasings. It was a substantial increase in frozen inventory in the fourth quarter of 2013. In the fourth quarter of 2014, that level was enormous. You have to look at that number for the full-year. For the full-year, demand in Japan is actually up 10%.
The underlying demand in Japan is good. Do not get fooled by the fourth quarter percentage drop. Industry supply outlook 2015. It looks favorable. We think it will be in the range between 0%-5%. It's very hard to give an exact number. According to consensus, it's 2%- 3%. We are in line with consensus. Normally, that bodes well for the salmon price. Last year, we had a supply growth of as high as 9%. In 2015, we see a modest growth in Norway between 2%-6% and a reduction in Chile. We think that the oversupply in Chile, which we have seen over the last year, is over. The rest of the regions are more or less stable. We see that Canada is up much percentage-wise, but not much in absolute terms, and that increase is more or less ourselves.
It makes sense. We are just going back to previous levels. If you look at the Canadian number over years, it's not a huge growth. Over to our own volume numbers. We have had biological issues in Scotland that has impacted the volume forecast for Scotland for 2015. It's now taken down from 63,000 t - 56,000 t. The other areas are more or less stable. In total, we are now down from 445 - 440,000 t. This is including Acuinova. Last time when we released the third quarter results, we didn't include Acuinova in our numbers, the 430 number, because we hadn't closed the transaction. Now we have closed the transaction, and consequently, we are including the volume numbers of Acuinova. That's the waterfall of that gap. I would like to give the word to Alf-Helge. Thank you.
Thank you, Ivan. Just to go through the idea and the philosophy behind the merger with AquaChile and some facts around that. It's still early days. We have signed a conditional terms agreement, and as Ivan just said, we plan to finalize the merger towards the end of or in the third quarter of 2015. This will form a company that harvested in 2014, 165,000 t of salmon or salmonids and has a capacity in the range of 260,000 t. It's also a company that will have 19,000 t of tilapia production and a capacity of tilapia in the area of 25,000 t. For the most part, this will be a big salmon company in Chile. We've always said, and we have had the same philosophy as AquaChile, that the important step in Chile is to consolidate the industry.
If we want to get control over the biology and the coordination there, that's what has to happen. We agree on the future and the road going ahead, and it makes sense to do what we do from an industrial point of view. That's why, in reality, we've put these two companies together, or we will try to do it. We will get the 42% or close to 43% owner share in the new company that will be called AquaChile after the merger. It will be listed on the Santiago Stock Exchange, and other shareholders will own 55%. We have one option here in an option agreement here, starting from the 15th of June, 2016, where we can buy up to 55% of the company and it's guaranteed that the share will be available at the given price at that point. That option agreement lasts for one year.
As I already said earlier, this means that Marine Harvest Chile going forward now from 1st quarter will be reported a discontinued operation. That's in reality, technically wise, or just a technical term. Just to look into the Chilean industry and a little bit more reasoning. These are the companies in Chile or the biggest companies in Chile, and you see the number of licenses here going down. Marine Harvest now at 191 licenses, AquaChile at 151 licenses. Then a lot of companies with fewer licenses in a rather at least sort of crammed area. We really need these two regions in reality, or three regions, Region 12, Region 11, and Region 10, where you do farming. We really need to use the best sites, have good distance between sites, and this gives us the opportunity to have regions by ourself and have better fish health.
This has in fact been the success of Marine Harvest in Chile or the way we have been able to have good fish health is by selecting the very best sites in a good risk model. This new company will have 343 sites to select from. A tremendous opportunity going forward. Biological challenges links together with your operations and how you interfere with your neighbors. The more areas you control, the better off you are. We have one area, for example, in Norway, in Agder, where we have not treated for sea lice for close to four and a half years. We are alone. We can control the operation. That makes sense, and we know it works. All in all, better coordination and better logistics in the industry helps.
Obviously, we hope this is just the start of a consolidation wave in Chile and that more will follow. That will be good for the industry. Over to outlook. In terms of supply outlook, Ivan just went through the numbers. We see that as favorable from between 0% and 5% for next year is numbers that normally this industry copes well with. Remember that 2014 ended at a 9% increase. The Russian situation is there. I think we will adapt to it better and better as we go. I think it necessarily is an upside in the Russian situation if sold. If not sold, we will, over time, be able to handle that volume better and better to other markets. That is, in my mind, a potential. Future prices bodes well for the future. NOK 41 for Q1 2015 and NOK 41 for the whole year.
The AquaChile merger I just went through, and we really think this will be a catalyst for improvement in Chile. In terms of focus, is in general and farming on controlling biological cost. We really need to come to grip with the sea lice issues. We see huge variation. We know that you can easily operate farm with the sea lice cost of NOK 0.2 per kilo, and we do that in some areas. We also are closing in on NOK 2.5 and NOK 3 on the upper end. To throw more salmon into the ocean, for example, in some of the Norwegian regions now, I would not say it's suicide, but it's close. That is important. The feed side, key for us, we're very happy that feed mill can supply 80% of Norwegian need.
We will buy the remaining feed in Norway. We have a good benchmark. We can expand this business abroad where we see potential of doing that. In that way, we at least save some CapEx in terms of feed mills. The dividend we already mentioned, NOK 1.2 per share to be paid out. As Ivan said, there is a calendar when or released a notice when that will be done. You will have to watch on the internet. With that, I will open up for questions. I'm sure there are many, please state your name and your employer. There is one person running around with a microphone. If any questions, just raise your hand and you will get the microphone.
Kolbjørn Giskeødegård from Nordea Markets. Two questions, one on feed prices. We have seen considerably stronger U.S. dollars and most feed components are priced in that currency. Can you say something about what you expect would be the cost impact for your operations gradually during 2015 and 2016? The second one is the upcoming white paper from the Norwegian government on future fish farming. Can you say something about your expectations and demands for that report?
Yeah. First, in terms of feed raw material cost, it depends on what situation and how you have bought in. We are very well covered on raw materials until June next year. It obviously depends on how the cost of different raw materials will develop going forward. In general, as you say, the weakening of the NOK or the strengthening of the dollar has an impact of higher raw material prices in many raw materials. Also euros counts here as well, and NOK to some extent on some fish meal, fish oil from the North Atlantic. In general, the answer is that the raw material cost increases when the exchange rate changes like it has done now.
In terms of the second question on the white paper, I think the government have really stated quite good alternatives here with red light, yellow light, and green light. Biological indicators is what they present as how it's going to be. If they can put clear targets especially on the sea lice situation, what kind of numbers are allowed and a strategy for how to combat that situation, I think that is very favorable. I will hope they will lift the view and look into the future and have a gradual growth plan for the industry. First, the key here is to solve the biological situation right now, which is an action they have to take right now and with biological indicators and a really good strategy of solving that. The potential for this industry is tremendous. Few more questions back there now.
Georg Liasjø, ABG. First of all, a question on continued consolidation. You've been busy for a while now, particularly consolidating the Chilean industry. You have also gone downstream with acquiring Morpol. Would it be fair to say that you have entered into a standstill situation for a while when it comes to consolidation now, apart from focusing on feed? Would that be a correct statement? Have you also some kind of standstill agreement with AquaChile with further M&A with this new entity? Not only an agreement, but do you also face antitrust issues in Chile if you were to grow further there? That's the first question, and the second question is also related to Norway and politics you could say. The 5% potential increase that was signaled from the government last summer.
Have you thought more about whether or not you will take advantage of that growth opportunity?
Yeah, in terms of consolidation going forward, we have stated that we will look into consolidation or acquisition in two parts of the world, especially on the farming side. That's Norway and Chile. Certainly, we have taken on a big job in Chile in this quarter, and we will need to complete that. That's not ruling out by any means in the future that this company can do more. In terms of obviously antitrust and filings with competition authorities, that will have to be done over the next few months. That's in fact why the closing is in September of 2015, not before. We don't know the outcome of that. Looking at other industries in Chile, you know 21% capacity production is nothing if you compare it with the pork industry in Chile, for example. The answer to that will be given by the competition authorities.
Standstill, we don't have any standstill ever. We will continue to develop this company going forward forever. That's our job. That's not a question that we, in general, are in a position where we will be. We are here to develop the business. On Norway, 5% potential increase, as you said, and the government suggestion to that. Far, we have not got the final details how that will be organized. I think it's a little bit too early to tell. We will take a really good look at our operation and see if they qualify when we have the details. If they qualify, we will take part. Before we have the details here on what's the requirement, it's hard to name that. If it's 0 mature female lice, it's only in a few areas we can do it.
We will have to wait for that.
Thomas Lorck with Arctic Securities. Can you please say something about the targeted volume growth following the working capital increase you're targeting for 2015? What regions and approximately what kind of volumes to be seen in 2016?
Ivan will give you a good answer on that.
You will get to that when we release the third quarter results. It's a little bit early to say, but we are targeting growth. The details we must revert to at a later stage.
More questions?
We have two questions from the web from Mr. Christensen. The questions read, "What is the company strategy for further growth?" The second one is, "What is the company doing to ensure that the salmon's health is improved from a reputational standpoint?
First question was what we are doing for further growth, and the second was on fish health. Our strategy is, as I've stated before, three divisions: fish feed, fish farming, sales and marketing. We have just grown the business in the fish feed segment quite a bit, and we will look into new sites for growth in that business going forward. Not necessarily in Norway but more likely in other countries. In terms of the fish farming side, we've said we don't want to grow before we have biological control. We need to have that in many areas today. We can grow in a few areas both in Norway, in Canada, even a few areas in Scotland we can have growth. There find solutions to the biological issue first before we grow.
It's smart from an industry point of view, and it's smart from a profitability point of view in Marine Harvest. On the other hand, we can grow in the upside side organically. We have grown with building several factories in Asia on value added. We keep on modernizing and growing our operations in Europe. We have doubled our smoking capacity in the U.S. and we keep growing with new brands as we speak. There's a huge potential in the marketplace where you can grow organically and where you can grow with a good organization. That's how we'll do it. On the health side, we in Marine Harvest have a R&D division. The majority of the projects there go into fish health including sea lice. Last time I counted, we had 91 different projects.
We also have projects together with other industry partners and also university and the like to try to find solutions for the fish health issue or fish health issues. We work with vaccine companies and also other companies especially on the sea lice side to remove lice mechanically or with water or with wrasse and live fish. We do a lot in that part. Unfortunately, we have not found the silver bullet yet. I don't think we'll find it either, but it will be a combination of tools that will save this industry. More question from the back?
Marius Gaard, Carnegie. Just a question on the CapEx and working capital. Apart from the maintenance CapEx, how much of the structural growth CapEx and the working capital have you actually committed to spend in 2015?
Not much. This is the plan we have. Consequently, there is a commitment. Since we have released the number, we are committed. Legally, not all of it, of course, is committed. I don't know if that was a good answer.
If you have committed to the working capital, there will be also growth in 2016?
That's definitely the intention. We can't promise anything. We are talking about biology here for a large part of our business, and that's Mother Nature. The plan is definitely there.
It's also important to recall that we bought an operation in Chile which is included in these plans, Acuinova. That is in mind. That's a company that we need to put some working capital into, or that was the plan.
For what it's sake, Marine Harvest Chile is a part of these numbers until we close the transaction. This is Marine Harvest as is.
Regarding Acuinova, can you say how much has the previous owner underinvested in the company in the past two, three years that you have to recover?
We are in the middle of a due diligence process, so it's a little bit premature to answer that. To our knowledge, the answer is that they are not underinvested, and the assumption is that we are merging with a state-of-the-art farm operation.
Sorry, I have to break in. He was asking about Acuinova.
Acuinova. Okay, sorry.
I can take it on. Obviously, it's a company that's been without too much cash over the last years. The fundamental structure on the sites, the barges are good, in fact quite okay, and the processing plant, which we take is a good plant, doesn't need a lot of investment, some maintenance. The hatchery was new in Acuinova. It's one of the bigger hatcheries in Chile, on the ocean, with a huge freshwater source. All in all, I think in that part, the foundation of the company is good, but then you have to invest into working capital for growing the biomass somewhat. Obviously, there are some nets and bits and pieces that needs to be changed. That's the nature of the game when you buy a bankruptcy company. More questions? No. Okay. Thank you very much for coming, and have a nice day