Austevoll Seafood (AUSS)

Business Overview

Austevoll Seafood owns 52.69% of Lerøy, so its salmon profit is Lerøy's, wrapped in a group that also catches and processes wild fish. Those are pelagic fish: anchovy, herring, mackerel and other shoaling species. Much of the catch becomes fishmeal and fish oil. Austevoll owns pelagic fishing and fishmeal and fish-oil plants in Peru (Austral) and Chile (FoodCorp), and half of Pelagia in Europe. It also owns 55.2% of Kobbevik og Furuholmen Oppdrett (KFO), a western Norwegian salmon farmer with seven licences.

In FY2025 Austevoll's Lerøy segment harvested 195,600 t gutted weight of salmon and trout and earned NOK 6.7/kg of farming operational EBIT, the profit measure that leaves out the accounting revaluation of fish still in the sea. That matches Lerøy's own filing of 195,555 t, rounded. KFO added 7,298 t of salmon at NOK 7.6/kg of adjusted EBIT (Q4 2025 report). The pelagic and fishmeal businesses spread the group's earnings beyond salmon, but they also hide the per-kilo farming economics. Lerøy Seafood covers the farming in detail; this page covers what the parent adds.

How the Numbers Read

Group net interest-bearing debt was NOK 8,712m at 31 December 2025, or NOK 10,712m including lease liabilities other than to credit institutions (Annual Report 2025). Of the NOK 8,712m, NOK 8,022m sits in Lerøy, NOK 1,238m in Austral and NOK 122m in FoodCorp, less NOK 670m of net cash elsewhere in the group. Lerøy's NOK 8,022m includes NOK 1,154m of its own lease liabilities to credit institutions. The debt finances fishing vessels and fishmeal plants as well as farming licences, so a leverage ratio on farming earnings alone leaves part of it out.

Capacity comes in two disclosures. Lerøy's commercial licences allowed 117,500 t of maximum allowed biomass (MAB) at its March 2026 capital markets day. KFO held 4,700 t at 31 December 2025, a temporary 14% cut from 5,460 t, more than one 6% red grade under Norway's traffic lights, which grade each production area on the harm farm lice do to wild salmon; KFO farms in areas 3 and 4. MAB caps the fish in the sea at any one moment. Fish are stocked and harvested through the year, so a year's harvest can exceed the cap, as both Lerøy's and KFO's did. The MAB guide explains the rules.

Valuation Framework

A holding company like Austevoll is valued in parts. The Lerøy farming leg is harvest times operational EBIT per kg at a long-run salmon price, taxed at 22% corporate tax plus Norway's 25% resource-rent tax on farming since 1 January 2023. Pelagic and fishmeal earnings are valued on their own. Then come group debt and the share of each business owned by others: 47.31% of Lerøy and 44.8% of KFO.

Austevoll's market value cannot be set directly against Lerøy's, because it owns only part of Lerøy plus pelagic assets and its own debt. The EV/kg guide covers the pure-farming measure; Austevoll needs its non-farming parts taken out first.

What to Watch in the Financials

Lerøy's farming figures. Lerøy is Austevoll's largest earnings leg, so its biology and the salmon price reach Austevoll first. Lerøy treated 1,956 cages for lice in 2025, against 1,463 in 2024.

Pelagic and fishmeal earnings. They offset the salmon price in part but run on catch quotas and fishmeal prices of their own. The annual report's segment lines are the source for valuing the parts.

KFO's licence cap. Production area 3 stayed red in the decision of 19 June 2026 and area 4 moved to yellow. A cut is restored only when an area turns green, so the 760 t has not come back, and any change reaches KFO's harvest with a lag.

Key Risks

Holding-company structure. A change in Lerøy's farming results reaches Austevoll only through its 52.69% share, alongside pelagic earnings that do not move with salmon.

Farming cost. On a farming margin of NOK 6.7/kg, each NOK 1/kg of extra cost removes about 15% of Lerøy's farming EBIT.