Interview with Adam Parker, Treasury Manager, and Catarina Martins, Chief Sustainability and Technology Officer, Mowi ASA

Ida Johanne Bohmann (CMS): To start, can you tell us a few words about Mowi ASA?

Adam Parker (Mowi): Mowi is one of the world’s leading seafood companies, ranked as number one on both market capitalisation and sustainability. With its headquarters in Bergen, the company is present in over 25 countries and has farming activities in seven of these, making Mowi by far the world’s largest farmer of Atlantic salmon with harvest volumes of 464 000 tonnes in 2022, equivalent to a global market share of approximately 20%. The company has a fully integrated value chain from roe to plate and produces its own environmentally certified feed specifically designed for the Mowi salmon strain.

I. J.-B.: Mowi ASA refinanced its existing facilities with the entry into an EUR 1,800 million sustainability-linked revolving facility in 2021 – could you tell us a bit about that process?

A. P.: Mowi was the first seafood company to issue a Green Bond in 2020, and since that time has pursued a target of 100% sustainable financing. As Mowi’s largest financing source by far is our bank facility, it made perfect sense to link this to our sustainability strategy at the refinancing. This added some additional work to the process; negotiating KPIs with the syndicate banks and documenting the Sustainability Performance Targets, plus the need for annual sustainability compliance reporting. Otherwise the refinancing process was much like any other refinancing.

I. J.-B.: How did you conclude on the KPIs – did you use an external consulting firm for example? How was the process of landing the KPIs?

A. P.: Mowi was in a strong position to structure the sustainability features of the facility, as we already had a comprehensive sustainability strategy and an extensive set of corporate sustainability KPIs.  Furthermore, with a syndicate of six major banks at the time we also had their world-class sustainability teams at our disposal to advise us, so there was no need for external consultants.

We began bilateral discussions with our syndicate banks’ sustainability teams in late 2020, seeking their advice on which combinations of KPIs they would prefer, and what level of ambition would be appropriate. We then compared the banks’ detailed input to Mowi’s own materiality assessment which informed the final choice of KPIs. Starting sustainability discussions early in the refinancing process gave us plenty of time to make an informed decision on KPIs, and I believe also helped the banks to understand and agree to our final choice of KPIs.

I. J.-B.: Do you think sustainable finance will play a key role in meeting our climate goals in the future? What is your outlook on sustainable finance?

A. P.: I believe sustainable finance will be a key tool to help meet climate goals, driven by investors’ increasing preference for sustainable investments, and inevitable regulatory pressure. If a company wishes its sustainability strategy to be taken seriously then it must integrate sustainability into all parts of the business, including financing.

I. J.-B.: Do sustainability-linked loans make sense from a business and investment perspective, and if yes, how so?

A. P.: Absolutely. Mowi farms salmon in the sea, so many of our sustainability KPIs are linked to protecting the local natural environment where we farm. With sustainability in our DNA, why not link our financing to our sustainability goals?

From the investor’s point of view, to give a financial incentive to a borrower such as Mowi for meeting ambitious sustainability targets makes great sense, as those targets should contribute to future-proofing the company’s operations and reputation. Such a company should be more attractive to consumers and also attract the brightest talent, making it a sound investment over time, all else being equal.

I. J.-B.: How has the sustainability agenda affected the fish farming industry over the recent years? What has been the most important developments?

Catarina Martins (Mowi): Sustainability has been part of Mowi’s journey for over a decade now, but in recent years we have made our sustainability commitments even clearer and the performance towards our targets more transparent. The launch of our sustainability strategy, the Blue Revolution Plan, in 2019, was key to making our vision, targets and strategy clearer to our stakeholders. We have also committed to using sustainable financing, which reflects the extent to which sustainability is embedded in our way of working. We have also seen significant progress in several of our sustainability programmes in recent years, including a reduction in our GHG emissions, increased share of sustainable packaging and managing to certify nearly 100% of our yearly harvested volumes with a sustainability-recognised standard.

I. J.-B.: Do you see KPIs and Sustainability Performance Targets as good tool for achieving a company’s sustainability ambitions?

C. M.: Absolutely. We need clear targets which relate to KPIs. This helps us both in driving our internal work and in communicating externally in a transparent and credible way. All our sustainability programmes have targets and KPIs.

I. J.-B.: How does ESG issues and sustainability impact your strategic decision-making?

C. M.: ESG is in today’s world an integral part of Mowi’s strategic decision-making processes. Several recent strategic decisions such as building our new feed plant in Scotland or our post-smolt plan in Norway have strong positive sustainability impacts including reduction of GHG emissions, ensuring 100% compliance with our sourcing feed raw materials policy, reduction in freshwater use intensity, etc.

Read more interviews:

• Interview with Benoît Rousseau;
• Interview with Laurie Chesné, Natixis;
• Interview with Adam Parker and Catarina Martins.