Abg Sundal Collier Asa

Okay, good morning all, and a warm welcome to ABG Sundal Collier's Q2 results presentation. I will shortly walk you through our performance during the second quarter, but before I do that, I'd like to mention that we will, as usual, have a Q&A session after the presentation. And should you want to raise a question, please use the Q&A function in Teams and I will answer all questions you might have in turn. Okay, it's difficult to be anything but pleased with our performance in the second quarter. We have delivered our second strongest Q2 revenue number in our history, growing our top line by 27% in the quarter year on year. The top-line growth has been achieved with good contributions across geographies, strong growth in Sweden, coupled with stellar performance in Denmark. Denmark delivering its strongest quarter ever, highlighting the enhanced position as the number one advisor in Denmark post-acquisition of FIH Partners. From a product perspective, On private banking, we are pleased with the reception of our services, good growth of customers and assets under management with committed capital above 2 billion SEK. Supported by the fact that we have delivered strong performance in our discretionary portfolios, outperforming all relevant indices. And finally, before digging deeper into the numbers and our performance in the quarter, as announced today, I have decided to step down as CEO, effective from September 1st, after more than seven years in this position. It has been an extraordinary journey, and I'm grateful to all of our employees, partners, clients, and shareholders for their trust and commitment. ABG Sundal Collier has during my time at the helm more than doubled revenues, strengthened its positions and now was basically a good time to pass on the responsibilities to someone else that has at least a plus five year perspective to continue to develop ABG from a position of strength. I am confident the company is well positioned for continued success and I will stay with the firm after September 1st and I remain fully committed to supporting a smooth transition as well as contributing to ABG longer term.

Okay, so with that

Let's skip to the next slide and have a closer look at the numbers. Once again, a strong revenue quarter, up by 27% to NOK 727 million from 570 million the same quarter last year. Results being in first half revenues of 1.14 billion NOK. Our operating margin ended up at 25% in the quarter and 19% in the first half. Excluding transaction costs and temporary overlapping infrastructure costs related to the acquisition of FIH partners and some other costs of a non-recurring basis, including what I mentioned the last quarter, i.e. net presentation of client interest versus gross presentation of client interest prior quarters. Excluding all these effects, the second quarter margin was 28% and the first half margin was 23%. Earnings per share ended up at Thank you very much. and stabilizing on low levels, clearly below the magical 20 number in terms of VIX. That said, long-term interest rates remained elevated, both in the US and Europe, indicating that, not least on the back of the Iran conflict, Inflation is not out of the picture. Having said that, the recent development in oil prices post the Iran peace agreement negotiations, that should at least reduce the risk for negative surprises in inflation going forward, hopefully. Continuing with the next slide and how our markets performed against this macro backdrop. It is not surprising to see strong performance, strong momentum in general equity capital markets activity across Nordics with growth area in the quarter in terms of volumes of a stellar 128%. That should Obviously, that increase in percentage terms should obviously be put in a historical context, i.e. a very, very quiet second quarter last year. So, maybe one should have a look at the lower left-hand side of the side instead, and the increase is less dramatic if you look at a last quarter rolling average.