Fifax Financial Statements Release 2024: Sales have successfully restarted and are expected to scale up significantly during spring 2025

Fifax Financial Statements Release 2024: Sales have successfully restarted and are expected to scale up significantly during spring 2025

This is a summary of Fifax Plc’s Financial Statements Release. The entire report is attached to this Company Announcement as a pdf file. The report is also available on Company's website at https://fifax.ax/en/investors/reports-and-presentations.

Significant events in January–December 2024

The figures in brackets refer to the equivalent period in 2023.

• The company was able to start sales again in October and a total of 82 tonnes of gutted fish was delivered to customers in the last quarter of 2024. Sales totalled EUR 0.5 million.
• The fish stock amounts to 832 tonnes (59 tonnes) of fish of different sizes.
• The operating loss was EUR -6.0 million (EUR -6.7 million).
• The loss for the financial period was EUR -6.9 million (EUR -7.2 million).
• The company obtained loan funding of EUR 2.5 million in 2024. EUR 1.0 million was raised as convertible loans, EUR 1.0 million as delivery financing and furthermore the company was granted EUR 2.5 million in new long-term loans out of which EUR 0.5 million was drawn down as at 31 December 2024.
• The company has in 2023 and 2024 gathered a significant proportion of the funds required for the restart. However, further financing is required to complete the restart of the entire production facility.

Significant events after the period

• On 17 January 2025 and 12 February 2025, Fifax received a total of EUR 0.6 million in tax refunds for the difference in electricity tax for tax classes I and II for the years 2018-2021. The Tax Administration has decided to refund the amount in accordance with the decision of the Administrative Court of Helsinki of 23 October 2024. However, the Tax Administration has appealed the Administrative Court’s decision, and it has therefore not yet become legally binding.
• On 5 February 2025, Fifax received a convertible loan of EUR 0.25 million.
• On 21.2.2025, Fifax received EUR 0.1 million partial payment of the investment grant of 0.3 million from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) in relation to one of the ongoing investment projects.
• Fifax has received an extension to the liquidity waiver until 31.5.2025 on the long-term loans.

Samppa Ruohtula, CEO

During 2024, our focus gradually shifted from restart and technical improvements to operations and sales.

We continued the planned development measures and ramped gradually up the farming capacity, so that all production units at the Eckerö facility are now in use. The hatchery and fingerling production ran at full speed throughout the year. A total of 11 batches of eggs have been introduced in the hatchery so far since the restart in March 2023, and the fish stock increased to 832 tonnes during the year.

At the same time, we prepared for the restart of deliveries together with our customers, and as a central element of this work we announced at the end of July a significant frame agreement with Kalavapriikki Oy. As perhaps the most important step, we resumed commercial deliveries on 7 October 2024, when we harvested fish for the first time after a break just over two years.

Since the sales start, deliveries have continued weekly, and the overall quality of the delivered fish was good. Both the HOG[1] - yield and the share of superior quality fish have maintained on a good level, and all fish harvested have been sold. In total, we have delivered fish for more than one million euro since October, and the fish stock has at the same time increased to approximately 870 tons.

To ensure the stability of the technical and biological processes, great care was taken with the start-up of each part of the facility. As new units could not be started at the same rate as the fish stock increased, the density was occasionally high in some tanks and extra caution was required to be exercised. As a result, the first batches show a slightly wider size spread and lower average growth than expected, therefore the full delivery run-rate has been a bit delayed vs the plans.

The long-term outlook for land-based aquaculture continues to be promising. Demand for fish overall is generally estimated to exceed supply in the foreseeable future, while global challenges – climate change, emissions and eutrophication, as well as environmental risks related to fisheries and conventional fish farming – limit opportunities to increase volumes in conventional ways. Geopolitical developments in recent years have also raised the issue of security of supply and the importance of local food production.

We therefore consider our continued work to be very meaningful. With the progress we have made so far, we are part of a small group of land-based pioneers globally who have come this far, and who actively produce fish. Fifax has accumulated unique know-how in the industry, and we believe this will be valuable in the future. In 2025, we will focus on optimizing the fish stock and its composition for stable state production, and on a controlled increase of the average harvest weight, and on continuous improvement of the biological performance. Above all, we look forward to delivering as stable volumes of high-quality rainbow trout as possible to our customers. We aim to provide an estimate on the production volumes for 2025 in connection with the half-year report in August. We can now also start to look ahead and gradually begin to plan investments in new production capacity.

Finally, I would like to thank once again all our employees, our customers, and our financiers for their dedicated and positive work and support throughout the demanding recovery period. Now we are “back in business” and can finally shift our focus from ramp-up to commercial operations and stabilisation of the production.

Key figures

1) Unaudited
2) Potentially dilutive instruments consist of convertible loans that could be converted into shares under the terms and conditions loan. As the company has incurred a loss, these instruments do not have a dilutive effect on the calculation of earnings per share. Therefore, earnings per share undiluted and diluted are the same.
3) The number of outstanding shares at the end of the period and the calculation of the weighted average number of outstanding shares during the period exclude the 150,000 shares that the company holds.

Calculation of key figures:
Earnings per share, undiluted (EUR) = Net result for the financial period/Weighted average number of outstanding shares during the period
Earnings per share, diluted (EUR) = Net result for the financial period/Weighted average number of outstanding shares during the period including (+) the number of any diluting shares
Investments = Investments in tangible and intangible assets as in the cash flow statement
Equity ratio % = (equity + equity-termed capital loans) / (total assets - prepayments received)

Going concern and financing

Since the IHN virus outbreak at the facility in 2022 the company has completed a large share of the planned actions in relation to the operational restart and the sale of head on gutted fish recommenced in the autumn 2024. Sales were initially started with small fish and the harvest size is planned to be increased gradually during 2025. A larger size is expected to give a higher average price for the fish sold. The fish stock at the time of publishing of this financial statements release has reached some 870 tonnes. Growth and mortality have, as a whole, improved in comparison to the operations prior to the production break.

The company has in 2023 and 2024 gathered a significant proportion of the funds required for the restart. Nonetheless, liquidity has been limited and some of the planned improvement investments had to be postponed. The farming conditions during the re-start have further contributed to an adverse variation in fish stock growth and size spread, especially in the first batches. These factors have delayed the sales start and create some uncertainty in the upscaling of deliveries and revenue to full scale.

Additional funds are needed in the short term for the purchase of production inputs and to complete the improvement investments that support the development and growth of the fish stock to optimal harvest size, and in the longer term to ensure that can be scaled up to a sufficient extent, to also ensure that the loans can be repaid. With this background, the board has evaluated the assumption of going concern up to the date of publishing of the financial statements release.

The company’s management has prepared a financial forecast for the following 18 months. Until the company can use its own revenue to finance its continued operation, it is dependent on additional financing to scale up the fish stock, deliveries and thereby revenue. The management and the Board of Directors are continuing their efforts to secure the financing and operational conditions required.

During the period up to the publication of this report, the following measures were implemented:

• The company has during 2024 obtained long term loans of EUR 0.5 million, short-term convertible loans of EUR 1.0 million, short-term delivery financing of 1.0 million as well as a prepayment on sales of EUR 1.4 million.
• After 31 December 2024, the company has received an additional EUR 0.25 million in convertible loans and EUR 0.1 million of the, in total EUR 0.3 million, investment grant from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. The company also expects to receive the next tranche of EUR 1.0 million of the EUR 2.5 million long-term loan.
• The company has also applied for EUR 0.8 million in investment grants from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund in relation to further investments related to the restart.
• Management is currently exploring alternative solutions for further financing.

At the beginning of 2025 liquidity was also strengthened as the company received EUR 0.6 million in energy tax refund.

The obtained financing is not sufficient to complete the last phase of the restart, i.e. the scaling up of the harvest volumes, and to complete the improvement investments to support the development and growth of the fish stock to optimal harvest size until the company can finance operations from its own revenue and to safeguard the repayments of the loans.

As there are no guarantees for obtaining sufficient financing on the date of publishing of this financial statements release to satisfy the working capital needs, the loan amortisations and to finalize the last phase of the re-start, there is a material uncertainty factor that may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern. However, the Board of Directors considers that there are good preconditions to obtain further financing in the form of equity or loan capital to safeguard the continued operations and has therefore decided to prepare the financial statements as a going concern.

The Board’s proposal on the use of distributable funds

Distributable funds amount to EUR 10.738.273.14, of which losses for the financial period total EUR -6,858,169.81. The Board proposes to the annual general meeting that the loss for the financial year be transferred to retained losses and that no funds be distributed from distributable shareholders’ equity.

Annual general meeting

Fifax Plc’s next annual general meeting is planned to be held on Thursday, 8 May 2025. The Board will send out invitations to the meeting at a later date.

Financial reporting

The company publishes a half-year report for the first six months of the year and a financial statements release and the financial statements for the full financial year, which is the calendar year.

The Annual Report (including the Financial Statements, the Board of Directors’ Report and the Auditor’s Report) for 2024 will be published no later than in the week starting on 10 March 2025 (week 11).

The half-year report for January-June 2025 is planned to be published on 20 August 2025.

The Financial Statements and the Board of Directors’ report for the 2024 financial year, and the half-year report for the first six months of 2025, will be published via a company announcement and on the company’s website https://fifax.ax/en/investors/reports-and-presentations.

Webcast

A webcast will be made at 12.30pm on 5 March 2025.

The webcast will be made in English and can be followed live at: https://events.inderes.com/fifax/2024-results

The press conference materials will be published separately at www.fifax.ax.

A recording of the webcast will be made available on the company’s website. Personal data collected in connection with the webcast will not be used for any other purpose.

Additional information

CEO Samppa Ruohtula, +358 40 559 8812, samppa.ruohtula@fifax.ax

Certified advisor

The certified adviser is Aktia Alexander Corporate Finance Oy, +358 50 520 4098. The certified advisor is Aktia Alexander Corporate Finance, +358 50 520 4098

Fifax in brief

Fifax’s vision is to be a forerunner in large-scale sustainable fish farming with a minimal impact on the environment, so that locally and sustainably produced fish can be enjoyed by its customers all year round.

Established in 2012, Fifax utilizes ultra-intensive Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) technology based on the principle of an almost completely closed water circulation within the facility, where the fish live in large land-based indoor tanks. Indoor tanks better safeguard against external factors, and the environmental impact and pollution from the facility is significantly lower when compared to traditional fish farming in water bodies.

FIFAX Plc’s shares have been listed in Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland.

[1] HOG, Head on Gutted