Cermaq will report a reduced financial result for quarter 4, 2008 due
to various issues impacting on the profitability of its operations.


Chile
The  situation   regarding   disease,  specifically   on   ISA,   has
deteriorated significantly in the last  few months. The industry  has
seen a sharp increase in  the number of new  cases of ISA and  Cermaq
operations have had 10 new cases of ISA since the end of September.

The new outbreaks  have affected  some licenses with  larger fish  of
2kg+ and others with fish under 500g. The company has decided to cull
3 sites with  smaller fish and  accelerate the harvest  of the  sites
with larger fish  and sell these  fish at lower  than optimal  sizes,
with a consequential lower revenue than anticipated. In addition, the
company is  eliminating a  percentage of  the freshwater  stocks  and
reducing the smolt transfers in 2009.

Previously, it  has been  communicated  that Mainstream  Chile  would
transfer a maximum of 8.7 million Atlantic smolts in 2009, but  would
adjust lower  if  the  ISA  situation  did  not  improve.  Given  the
worsening sanitary  situation,  Mainstream  Chile will  now  stock  a
maximum of 6 million Atlantic smolts this year. This figure may again
be adjusted  lower  if we  believe  the sanitary  situation  has  not
improved sufficiently in order to transfer to good biological areas.

At the time of  Q3 presentation, Cermaq estimated  one off write  off
costs of NOK  20-40 million  in Q4  to adjust  the Atlantic  stocking
plans. Given the increase in ISA  and the additional culling of  both
fresh and seawater stocks,  the exceptional write off  cost in Q4  is
expected to be in the region of NOK 120 million.

Sales volumes
The accelerated harvest of Atlantics combined with lower weights  has
reduced the  sales volume  in Q4  compared to  previous guidance.  In
addition, sales of  Trout, and  to a  lesser extent  Coho, have  been
delayed into 2009 due to  lower market prices prevailing towards  the
year-end of 2008. In  general, major markets like  USA and Japan  saw
reducing demand and market  prices during quarter  4 for Chilean  and
Canadian volumes of all species.

The sales in Q4  versus previous guidance were  as follows (in  round
thousand tonnes RWE):


+----------------------------------+
|               | Guiding | Actual |
|---------------+---------+--------|
| Norway        |      11 |     11 |
|---------------+---------+--------|
| Canada        |       9 |      8 |
|---------------+---------+--------|
| UK            |       3 |      2 |
|----------------------------------|
|                                  |
|----------------------------------|
| Coho          |       5 |      4 |
|---------------+---------+--------|
| Trout         |       3 |      1 |
|---------------+---------+--------|
| Atlantics     |       7 |      5 |
|---------------+---------+--------|
| Total Chile   |      15 |      9 |
|----------------------------------|
|                                  |
|----------------------------------|
| Total Q4 2008 |      37 |     30 |
+----------------------------------+


Due to the  biological conditions for  production in Chile,  expected
sales volumes remain uncertain for  2009. Cermaq does not adjust  the
specific sales  volume guidance  for 2009  at present.  However,  the
volumes of Coho and Trout  will likely increase from previous  stated
levels due to the delay in sales from 2008. Atlantics are  maintained
at the previous guided level, as  some sales will be moved from  2008
into 2009 and the main impact of  the new ISA cases is on year  2010.
Cermaq will  regularly  update  the market  on  the  developments  in
production conditions  and  volumes  in Chile  and  other  operations
during 2009.

Foreign Exchange Rate Impacts
Cermaq sells  and buys  in most  of the  major currencies  given  its
global portfolio of operations and  sales, and has historically  been
naturally hedged  to  exchange  rate  fluctuations  on  most  of  its
transactions.

However, in Q4,  the global financial  turbulence has caused  unusual
and volatile  fluctuations  in the  markets,  and had  an  impact  on
Cermaq's results. The Norwegian Kroner weakened substantially  versus
the major currencies such  as the US Dollar  and Euro during Q4,  and
this caused a large increase in the group NOK asset and debt base  of
Cermaq.

In addition, within EWOS, losses in NOK have been incurred on the P&L
due to outstanding  debt to  suppliers valued  in foreign  currencies
such as the  Euro, USD and  Danish Kroner and  also to some  customer
contracts being priced at exchange rates fixed at the prior quarter's
end  rate.  The  volatility  in  exchange  rates  coincided  with   a
seasonally high volume period for EWOS. This has negatively  impacted
on the EWOS gross margin in Q4 by approximately NOK 30 million.


Although the impact of ISA and exchange rate movements on Q4 and  the
2008 results is substantial, Cermaq  would like to emphasise that  it
is still above  the thresholds  for its banking  covenants using  the
standard method of calculation.


Further Information
Steven Rafferty, Chief Financial Officer, mobile  tel : +47 97 66  41
04


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