SalMar (SALM)

Business Overview

SalMar shows how much a group's EBIT per kg can hide. It earned NOK 13.6/kg of group operational EBIT in FY2025, but its farming regions ranged from a profit of NOK 20.7/kg to a loss of NOK 23.7/kg. Operational EBIT is the profit measure salmon farmers report alongside IFRS: it leaves out the accounting revaluation of fish still in the sea, so it tracks the fish actually sold.

The group harvested 284,500 t gutted weight, or 300,900 t including companies it part-owns. Northern Norway earned NOK 20.7/kg and Central Norway NOK 6.3/kg. Two newer businesses lost money: Icelandic Salmon lost NOK 16.7/kg and SalMar Ocean, its offshore farming venture, lost NOK 23.7/kg. The group figure also includes its sales and processing segment, which harvests no fish of its own: its profit enters group EBIT but adds no kilos to divide by, so the group figure is not a pure farming margin.

How the Numbers Read

The NOK 14.4/kg gap between Northern and Central Norway, inside one company and one country, shows how much licence location, biology and logistics matter. A shift in harvest between the two regions moves the group figure with no change in the salmon price.

SalMar's Norwegian licences allowed 173,118 t of maximum allowed biomass (MAB) at 31 December 2025. MAB caps the weight of live fish in the sea at any one moment. Fish are stocked, grown and harvested through the year, so the stock turns over and a year's harvest can exceed the cap: its two Norwegian farming regions alone harvested 264,600 t (Central 145,400 t, Northern 119,200 t), well above it. New licence capacity takes 12-18 months to show up in harvest, as the MAB capacity guide explains.

Twelve-month rolling survival at sea was 94.8% in FY2025, against 93.0% in 2024. Grieg Seafood reported 91% on the same basis.

Net interest-bearing debt was NOK 20,848m excluding leases (NOK 22,549m including them) at 31 December 2025. That is 5.4 times FY2025 operational EBIT of NOK 3,867m.

Valuation Framework

Tax comes first for a Norwegian farmer. Since 1 January 2023, profit from farming salmon in the sea in Norway has carried a 25% resource-rent tax on top of 22% corporate tax. SalMar said on 31 May 2023, when Parliament adopted the tax, that it took its marginal rate "from 22% to 47%". Iceland is outside the Norwegian tax, so a cash-flow valuation must apply it to the Norwegian share of EBIT alone.

Salmon farmers are also compared on enterprise value per kg of harvest. For SalMar, the harvest figure must match what the enterprise value includes (consolidated, or with part-owned companies), and the loss-making Iceland and offshore businesses sit inside it. The EV/kg guide works through the choices on a fictional farm.

Norway grants growth through a traffic-light system. It grades each production area every two years on how far sea lice from farms harm wild salmon. Green areas may grow up to 6%, yellow areas are frozen and red areas are cut 6%. Growth in green areas is sold at a fixed price for the first 1% (NOK 170,000 a tonne in 2024, NOK 270,000 in 2026), and the rest at auction.

The decision of 19 June 2026 graded 3 areas green, 9 yellow and 1 red. SalMar's Central Norway farms, from Sunnmøre to the Namdal coast, all sit in yellow areas, so they cannot grow through the traffic lights until the next grading. Its Northern Norway region runs from southern Troms, which is yellow, to eastern Finnmark, which is green.

What to Watch in the Financials

Iceland and offshore. Their losses pull the group figure below what the Norwegian farms earn; watch whether they narrow.

Harvest in part-owned companies. The 16,400 t gap between the two harvest figures earns SalMar a share of profit, not revenue, unless it takes control.

Key Risks

Offshore farming. Farming salmon in the open sea needs large capital spending and is not yet proven at scale.

Debt against a cyclical profit. The debt is fixed, while operational EBIT moves with the salmon price.

Regional biology within Norway. A lice or gill problem in Central Norway takes a larger share of a thinner margin, and can pull the group figure down even if Northern Norway holds.