Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vistin Pharma quarterly report Q1 2023 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Alternatively, you may submit your question via the webcast. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Kjell-Erik Nordby, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Welcome to this webcast presenting the first quarter 2023 results in Vistin Pharma. We start with the highlights for the quarter. We had a record high revenue in the quarter, about NOK 100 million in revenue versus NOK 33 million in the first quarter last year. This significant increase in revenue is due to the fact that we are now producing material from both production lines, and that has resulted in more volumes available for sale compared to the 8-week production stop that we had in the first quarter last year, when we did the MEP installation.
This record high revenue also has resulted in a high EBITDA for the quarter compared to the negative EBITDA in first quarter 2022. The EBITDA ended at NOK 14 million versus NOK -18 million last quarter. The EBITDA was positively affected by increased sales volume, higher average sales prices. You know that we in December 2022, enter into a long-term energy supply contract with Statkraft. That has materialized in the first quarter this year and has significantly reduced the electricity cost compared to the same quarter last year. We see now when the volume is ramping up that the economies of scale has started to materialize, and we expect that to continue throughout the year.
Other highlights from the quarter that the net profit was negatively affected with NOK 15 million by fair value FX cash flow hedging contracts. However, that has no cash effect in the quarter. We have significantly improved the operational cash flow in the quarter and have reduced our net debt from NOK 43.7 million in Q4 last year to NOK 20.3 million by end of March. The board of directors has proposed to get a power attorney from the AGM in May to pay up to 75 øre per share in dividend, and that power of attorney should be valid until the AGM in 2024. I would also like to take the opportunity that I have informed the board of directors that I plan to retire as the CEO in Vistin Pharma at year-end.
This is no dramatic beyond that decision, the board of directors will start a recruitment process to find my successor. However, I would emphasize that I have a very strong motivation and energy to work hard for delivering a strong 2023 in Vistin Pharma and help securing that our ambitious growth strategy is on track. I will continue with the operation review and start by the slide that saying something about the metformin market. As most of you know, we are a pure-play metformin company. We sell two grades of metformin. Metformin is the gold standard treatment for treating diabetes. Diabetes is one of the largest health emergencies in the 21st century. The metformin is the gold standard.
Combining these two parameters, the demand for metformin is expected to grow about 5%-6% annually. With the MEP project doubling the capacity, and when we sell that additional capacity, we will have approximately 50% of the share of the total global metformin market. Metformin is a very efficient product to treat diabetes in the body. The mechanism of action is that it's used to lower glucose, blood sugar levels by both reducing the liver's production of glucose, but also delaying and reduces the absorption of glucose from the intestine. The advantage with metformin that it's the first metformin product was launched in the late 1960s. It's a well-known product.
It has limited side effects, and the long-term safety profile is excellent. Normally, you will, when you have diabetes, you will get it in tablet form. It, new generations of metformin products contain metformin in combination with other APIs, which are in second and third-line treatments. They are often, patent protected and also sold at a higher price than the generic tablets. We call diabetes a global emergency and a global epidemic. That is caused by the fact that there is approximately half a billion patients suffering from diabetes today. That is going, or it's estimated by WHO to grow by more than 200 million new patients until 2045.
There is also a lot of people that today are living with diabetes and which are not diagnosed. Also, when more people are diagnosed with the diabetes, the more people will also receive metformin treatment. All the products are sold. We, as you know, we are a B2B company. We sell our API to strong regional or multinational companies that includes our API in their final dosage forms. In this map, it shows where our customers are located. Most of them are in Europe. We also have customers in Latin America, in Asia, in the U.S. Even though that most of our customers are located in Europe, the products that contain our metformin are sold throughout the world.
In Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, wherever you receive a metformin tablet treatment, at least 10% of the product will contain the metformin from Vistin Pharma. I leave it to Alexander to go through the financials for the first quarter.
Thank you, Kjell-Erik. Let's start looking at the volume. On the right, we have the production volume in the quarter, which was around 1,240 metric tons, which is a new quarterly record. It's also worth mentioning that line 2 was closed for around 10 days in February for a planned technical improvement as part of the ramp-up. Having a look at to the left, we have the quarterly sales volume, 1,112 tons. It's also here worth mentioning that we had around 100 tons that was originally planned for Q1 but was moved to the second quarter. Looking at the revenue, as Kjell-Erik mentioned in the start, around 200% increase versus first quarter last year. Again, mentioned previous slide, 100 tons moved from first to second quarter.
We also have agreed and negotiated prices or sales prices for 2023. That should reflect the current raw material and freight costs. Having a look at the gross margin. The gross margin in Q1 is positively affected by a weaker NOK compared to EUR, however partly offset by a stronger USD. I think as most as you know, we have most of our sales in EUR and purchase our main raw materials in USD. We see a positive sign in the gross margin. If you do a FX neutral gross margin, we are better in this quarter compared to both Q1 last year and Q4 last year. We continue to see positive signs on decreasing freight and raw materials.
In Q1, we have consumed the remaining of what I would say is expensive raw material purchased in Q3 and Q4 last year. The current raw material at hand that we will use in Q2 and purchases for Q3 onwards are at lower prices, so which should have a positive effect on our gross margin development. As previously, mentioned, we have an ambition for a gross term margin at about 60%. Looking at the result and the EBITDA ended at NOK 14 million compared to minus NOK 18 Q1 last year. Again, more, higher sales prices, obviously, much more competitive electricity costs. The FX effect mentioned previously.
Would mention that we had a one-time cost of around NOK 1.5 million in relation to the consultancy fees in a quarter, and that will not recur in the quarters coming forward. We do not expect any change in manning for the year, so we expect low leverage going forward as we continue to ramp up line number two. An overview of the income statement. I think we've been through most of the numbers on the top. I would mention the depreciation, which has increased from similar quarter last year, and that is driven by that we now finalized the capitalization of the MEP investment and started to depreciate that in full. We also mentioned the net finance cost in the quarter of NOK 13.8 million.
15 of that is the unrealized loss on the euro cash flow hedges that the currency FX had to value at market value at end of the quarter. However, this had no cash effect in Q1. That gives a negative result for the period of close to NOK 3 million. Going to the balance sheet. First having a look at the assets. Start with the fixed assets, increased compared to same quarter last year, driven by the MEP investments. Going down to the current assets, I would like to mention the inventory. It's significantly above same quarter last year. I would say on the same level in value as end of year 2022. However, the mix is slightly different now.
We have started to reduce the safety stock of the raw materials slightly, and we have now much more finished goods in stock compared to previously. At end of year 2022, it was mostly raw materials. Now it's a bit less raw materials and more finished goods. In relation to, I mentioned that we had around 100 metric tons of finished good ready for shipment, which was moved from Q1 to Q2. Having a look at the equity and liabilities, not much changes. I'll go down straight to the current liabilities. As Kjell-Erik mentioned, we have a significant reduction in debt in the quarter, and that's driven by the more stabilized working capital requirements, and that the sales and financial results have started to improve as we have more volumes available for sale.
I think that was what I had, Kjell-Erik, and then we're back to you.
Yeah. No, no, I'll try to summarize. Yeah, we're satisfied with the start of 2023, and are quite optimistic about the path forward. In 2022, we had kind of a perfect storm throughout the year with high electricity costs and high raw material and freight costs. We do not expect that to repeat itself this year. We are quite optimistic for the future. Also, looking at the long-term aspects of our business, the metformin markets will continue to grow. There is no sign that that will slow down. It will grow by 5% to 6% annually. That there are attractive growth potential to be realized when the additional manufacturing capacity is fully available.
We are already ramping up and are now producing at a significantly higher level than we did before the MEP project. The ramp-up plan to go up to 7,000 metric tons per year is on track. Large pharma companies are still looking for lower risk supply chains. We believe that we are strategically well positioned as many European clients prefer high-quality suppliers with short travel distances and lower risk supply chains. I mentioned that the project to increase the capacity to 7,000 metric tons is progressing. The long-term renewable energy supply agreement signed with Statkraft that last until 2032 will significantly improve our competitive position going forward.
You have seen that we already see the result from that, from that agreement in the EBITDA result for the first quarter. Alexander mentioned that freight and raw material prices are gradually decreasing during 2023 and will hopefully then normalize now after the post-COVID period. As Alexander said, that we have now bleeded out, if you can call it like that, most of the expensive raw materials bought last year and are now starting to harvest or see the benefits from a lower freight and raw material costs. Last is that the ambition in Vistin is to pay out 50% of the net annual profit and dividend.
the size of the dividend will be dependent on the company's financial capability and capital requirements for future growth. That is the summary of the quarter and how we and the outlook. I would like to finish the Q1 presentation by inviting you all to Vistin's Capital Markets Day. We will invite all interested parties to our plant in Fikkjebakke, close to Kragerø on June 14, where we will present both Vistin's long-term strategy in more detail. We will present our metformin business, how we, how we see the business.
We will also present the Fikkjebakke plant operation and the strategy for further streamlining the production site, and you will all be invited to a plant tour. That's it. Please, we will welcome you to our state-of-the-art plant, and we are proud to show you our plant, which I think will be interesting to all of you that would like to see how pharmaceutical manufacturing plants operates and look like. Thank you very much. I think we leave it for the Q&A session before we close the first quarter presentation.
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There is one question, about what project that we have in pipeline to ensure, further growth in the years to come. I think that, our top, priority and focus is to achieve the 7,000 metric tons, production volume, and fill that volume with customer contracts. I think that, yeah, or we have previously said that gives us, a significant, scale economy effect and will be very positive for the company. In parallel, we are of course, looking at other growth opportunities beyond, that achievement. I think that, first of all, let's, be sure that we deliver on the MAP business case.
I have a question that if I'm leaving for another company or retiring, I'm going salmon fishing, so I'm retiring. Well, I don't think that I want to leave the pharmaceutical business completely. I've been in that in the industry all my life. I have, I'm not leaving for any other company. I think I enjoy my life in Vistin so much that it would be of no interest for me to leave for another company. There's a question here regarding sales prices per ton on average with quarter, which are at a high level. I think it's worth mentioning that we have had a rather weak NOK compared to the EUR, which boosts our sales prices in NOK.
I think that going forward, we have fixed prices with most of our customers. As raw materials and freight decrease, that will give us leverage. However, we have for some customers, we have quarter negotiations, so if raw material and freight costs go down, they will have to take, get part of that benefit. Again, I think as direct answer to that question, most of our sales prices is fixed throughout the year. There's a question about maintenance stops in Q2. We will have, we have normally two annually maintenance stops. We will have one week stop now in April, or we had now in April, and then we have one in October. That's normal maintenance, recurring for both lines.
There's also a question about our current manufacturing installed manufacturing capacity by end of first quarter, and it's approximately 6,000 metric tons. There's a question about electricity consumption and prices in the long-term agreement with Statkraft. When we produce close to 7,000 tons, we will use in the range of 15-20 million kW or 50-20 GW per year. Depending on temperature outside, etcetera. When it comes to the price for the supply agreement, that's confidential. I can say that there are some government initiatives going out there that you can secure your electricity cost through fuel craft or other suppliers at 7 years. What we pay is less than that to give you a final amount you pay.
I think that completes the Q&A session. We therefore thank you for your attention. We will come back when we have the Q2 presentation later. Thank you very much.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.