• The operational measures implemented in the new cycle initiated by the new management team at the end of 2023 have boosted the Group’s results, with EBITDA for the period April to August 2024 of 18.1 million, almost duplicating the twelve months of the previous financial year.
• The Board of Directors will propose a capital increase of €72.6 million at the next Shareholder’s General Meeting to finance the future growth plan.
• The company closed the 2023/24 financial year with a loss of €131 million due to inflation, the historic fall in the price of shrimp and the climatic effect of El Niño.
  
  

Vigo, 11th September 2024 – The strategic and operational measures adopted by the Nueva Pescanova Group’s new management team have succeeded in reversing the company’s negative trend of the last two financial years and have set it on the path to recovery, achieving in the first five accounting months of 2024 – which run from April to August – an increase in turnover of 2% compared to the same period of the previous financial year. The operational efficiencies implemented led to an increase in margins, generating EBITDA* of 18.1 million, almost duplicating (185%) the EBITDA of the previous financial year (9.8 million).

This positive development of the company in the first months of the current financial year allows us to conclude that the trend has been reversed and we estimate that in the first nine months of the financial year we will reach an EBITDA of 37.5 million, i.e. almost four times the EBITDA of the entire 2023-24 financial year.

The appointment of a new CEO in September last year marked the start of a new phase in which the Executive Management Committee has been simplified and renewed to streamline decision-making. It has implemented, among other measures, a new business plan, a new commercial reorganisation, the reshaping of processes to improve service and increase operational efficiency, and the working capital optimisation.

Capital increase

In order to consolidate the change of stage, the Board of Directors of Nueva Pescanova will propose to the Shareholder’s General Meeting a capital increase of €72.6 million, to finance the future growth of the company. ABANCA, the Group’s main shareholder, has confirmed that it will participate in the capital increase, which guarantees that at least €71 million will be covered. The capital increase will be paid in cash during the fourth quarter of this year.

Prior to the capital increase, the Shareholder’s General Meeting will propose a reduction of the nominal value of the shares by 0.31€/share, for a total value of €223 million, in order to offset losses from previous years and clean up the balance sheet. This procedure will have no cash impact.

With the capital increase, the local financing and optimisation of the working capital management, the Group has succeeded in restoring liquidity and solvency and securing funds for its business plan 24/28.

2023/24 Financial statements

The company will hold its Shareholder’s General Meeting on 26th September, at which the 2023-2024 consolidated financial statements will be submitted for approval. These show sales of €970 million and a negative result of €131 million, of which €42 million correspond to an impairment provision to clean up the balance sheet, an amount that does not affect the cash flow.

These results end a cycle of two consecutive years heavily affected by exceptional external factors (inflation, exchange rates and the climatic phenomenon of El Niño).

To address these cyclical contingencies, and as part of the objectives of the new business plan, the company has also implemented improvement measures in recent months to make its operations more robust and to leave it prepared to face possible future negative cycles.

Change of financial year

Finally, at the Shareholder’s General Meeting, a change in the financial year will be presented for approval in order to adjust it to the natural calendar, following the company’s objectives to simplify operations. Until now, the Nueva Pescanova Group began its financial year in April. Therefore, to start with the natural calendar of 2025, the 2024 financial year will be adapted and shortened to nine months, ending next 31st December.

*The EBITDA referred to in this document follows comparable criteria in both periods.