“It was another solid quarter both operationally and financially. Our Shipyard Solutions business area continues to deliver healthy results, while our disruptive technology development projects – the Starfish closed fish cage and the SkyWalker wind turbine installation system – progressed according to plan,” says Preben Liltved, CEO of Nekkar.
The foundation of Nekkar's business is superior engineering, electrification, automation, and digitalisation competence and heritage from "Drilling bay" in Kristiansand which is found in the company's digital solutions business area. Nekkar aims to apply this competence as levers to develop disruptive technologies that can make high-growth industry sectors - such as aquaculture and renewable energy - even more sustainable, productive, and profitable.
Nekkar initiated ocean testing of its innovative “Starfish” closed fish cage in the first quarter. Starfish is a fully automated, closed fish cage solution that is digitally and remotely managed. At the heart of the system is a software platform for remote surveillance, data acquisition, bioanalytics, and production control.
In the first quarter, Nekkar received a NOK 21 million grant from Innovation Norway to progress with the development of a disruptive installation technology that could significantly reduce the cost and environmental footprint associated with wind turbine installations. The solution - called SkyWalker - uses active heave compensation derived from offshore lifting systems combined with digital solutions that allow for remote-controlled and automated solutions.
According to Nekkar’s own estimates, SkyWalker can generate 60-80 percent reduction in environmental footprint, CO2 emissions and time spent on installing an onshore wind farm with 20 wind turbines.
“Starfish and SkyWalker are two examples of how we can apply our unique engineering, automation and digitalisation competence to develop disruptive technologies that create sustainable results for our customers. The results from the Starfish pilot test are encouraging and the interest in our new technologies remain high,” says Preben Liltved.
Nekkar reported revenues of NOK 93 million in the first quarter 2021, up from NOK 66 million in the corresponding period in 2020. The company reported an operational EBITDA-result of NOK 17 million (5), equivalent to an EBITDA-margin of 18 percent (7.2%). Operational EBITDA excludes losses/gain on foreign exchange contracts not qualifying for hedge accounting. Reported EBITDA was NOK 17 million, a significant increase from NOK -24 million in the first quarter last year which was impacted by significant currency fluctuations due to the Corona pandemic.
Order intake in this year’s first quarter was NOK 16 million (9). Order backlog was NOK 1,043 million (752) per 31 March 2021. The order backlog is mainly related to contracts for Nekkar’s ship lift and transfer systems, delivered under the Syncolift brand.
Syncrolift signed a five-year service agreement with a US customer during the first quarter. Nekkar has identified growth in service revenue from its substantial installed base of docking facilities as a key focus area going forward.
“There is significant potential in providing services and upgrades in our current installed base of ship lifts and ship transfer systems. Our objective is to increase service revenues considerably in coming years,” adds Liltved.
The first quarter business update presentation is enclosed to this announcement.
Nekkar ASA will hold a business update presentation, including presentation of key financial figures today at 08:00 CET. The webcast presentation can be followed from the following URL: https://channel.royalcast.com/landingpage/hegnarmedia/20210531_1/