Abg Sundal Collier Holding Aktie

Good morning all, and a warm welcome to ABG Sundal Collier's Q1 result presentation. Before we kick off the presentation, I would like to mention that we will, as always, 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 we will answer all your questions in turn.

We entered 2026 from a strong position and had a good start to the quarter before facing yet another period of geopolitical uncertainty with the war -- outbreak of the war in Iran.

This coincided with the normally most active period during the quarter, during the first quarter, March. The geopolitical tensions had a negative impact on risk appetite in markets, leading to reduced transaction activity in capital markets specifically, but also longer execution time lines in general. Against that backdrop, I think that the first quarter performance on our side yet again proves the resilience in our business model enabled by our broad product offering and presence in many different markets, segments and geographies. The broadness of our product portfolio is not something that just happens to be. It requires us to have faith in continuing to invest in growth and strengthening our positions since the alternative would be to lose relevance over time. Therefore, we continue to relentlessly work with just that strengthening our positions at the same time as the exponential development in terms of technology enable us to increase productivity in the coming couple of years.

During the first quarter, we also integrated FIH partners to our platform, and we are very pleased with the integration process so far, and we are truly now one team. This is a true step change in our Danish market position, contributing to our overall attractiveness on a Nordic basis. Our pipeline remains intact in spite of the turmoil in the markets, even though execution obviously is delayed, as I alluded to earlier. But when the market normalizes, we are in a very good position to execute at a higher speed again. So with that initial comment, let's have a closer look at our numbers in the first quarter specifically, starting off with revenues that in spite of these challenging conditions, as alluded to, actually grow even though it was not a big step change in growth or revenue level, it was still growth. We ended up the quarter with NOK 440 million on the top line, and that means we are now close to NOK 2.2 billion on a 12-month rolling basis.

Looking at our operating margin, the drop in reported margin looks more dramatic than what it actually is. The underlying operating margin was on a comparative basis, 13%, more in line with development of earnings per share, as you can see on the right-hand side of the chart. The 5 percentage drop in margin consists mainly of acquisition and integration costs related to FIH and other nonrecurring costs, contributing some 3 percentage points to that drop and 2 percentage points due to reclassification of securities financing and M&A-related interest income, basically due to new accounting standards that means that a bigger portion of what used to be operating results now ends up on net finance instead. And that ties very well into, as I said, the development of earnings per share, as you can see on the right-hand side of the graph, as illustrated by a marginal decrease in earnings per share from NOK 0.9 to NOK 0.8 in the quarter.

Over to the market or the market backdrop, the next slide, please. In we're getting used to this almost having new difficulties to face early on in the year. In April last year, the U.S. President surprised us with Liberation day, trade war and consequently, tariffs. This year, he started off earlier in the year with a surprise attack on Iran. The current verdict in the market in light of the current recovery we've seen as of late seems to be that this too shall pass since the alternative simply is not a viable or solution or viable alternative. The risk appetite usually needs a bit more time to recover than what the stock market index indicates. But once things stabilize, we will be in a better position again to execute on our pipeline and capital market transactions. We have also seen after the quarter ended, continued recovery and less uncertainty in the market, even though setbacks could or should not be excluded, obviously.

Continuing with the next slide, looking at how our main markets within Investment Banking have performed in the Nordics and starting off with the Nordic equity capital markets. The volatility alluded to earlier, obviously had a clear negative impact on volumes being down by 29% in the quarter from NOK 36 billion last year to NOK 25 billion this year. And within the debt capital market side of things, the decline in volumes were actually more visible, down by 38% from NOK 89 billion to NOK 55 billion in the quarter year-over-year. With regards to debt capital markets, we should -- one should bear in mind that we are still on healthy and high levels, as you can see on the lower hand side of the chart, and we still expect that we will see continued structural growth in the Nordic capital debt markets, even though it won't be without cyclicality, obviously.

And finally, looking at the M&A market, usually the most stable of our markets, deal count was down by 12% in the quarter. But I think the last 12 months deal count is probably more relevant when looking at M&A. And once again, you can see the relative stability in this segment. Continuing with the next slide and looking at how we performed against this backdrop and starting off with our corporate financing operations. We delivered revenues of NOK 134 million in the quarter, up by 10% versus the same quarter last year. Market volumes overall, as alluded to on the previous slide, is not always the perfect guide for drawing conclusions on market position or market share development short term.

Having said that, given the very sharp drop in overall Nordic capital market volumes in the first quarter, I think it's fair to say that we did okay with our 10% increase. And as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, we closed numerous transactions during the quarter with a widespread between ECM, DCM sectors, geographies and including one very successful IPO during the quarter in Norway. Our DCM operation was active, as you can see as well, in the quarter in spite of the more muted environment with quite a few large transactions completed. Moving on to the next slide, please, talking about our M&A business. We delivered a very, let's say, undramatic set of numbers, yet another stable quarter in what seasonally tends to be from an M&A perspective, a rather weak quarter.

Revenues ended up at NOK 110 million, very much in line with the same period last year. And looking at our pipeline, we are in a good position to return to growth again within M&A operations over the coming quarters, provided some stability in markets, obviously. And as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, we closed quite a few high-profile transactions as well during this quarter, yet again, with a decent spread between sectors and with contribution from all geographies, included our expanded Danish operations. Okay. And finally, continuing with brokerage and research before we talk about headcount and costs. This also can probably best describe as undramatic on the headline with very stable revenues, around the NOK 170 million mark yet again in this quarter and above NOK 600 million on a last 12-month basis.

Looking under the hood, there are, as always, differences between our desks and geographies with Norway equity sales yet again delivering strong growth, not least from new brokerage clients, but we also witnessed healthy growth on our Swedish equity desk and slightly more muted elsewhere. Volatility in March contributed to growth somewhat, but we had growth -- strong growth in January and February as well, meaning that our performance is not only a function of volatility in the markets that usually tends to be positive for our secondary business. I would also like to highlight the strong -- continued strong performance within our research department. We cover some 400 companies, which is among the highest of all Nordic investment banks, crucial for our ability to deliver on both brokerage and IPOs once that cycle recover over time, of course. Okay.

So let's continue with headcount. Next slide, please, where we clearly have sequentially increased number of FTEs, obviously, as a result of the strengthening our Danish investment banking team through FIH partners. But year-on-year, the increase has been more marginal, as you can see, due to a combination of disciplined performance management and some natural turnover. Our combined team of 350 FTEs is now stronger than ever. We have grown our front-end operations with some 75, 80 FTEs, some 35% since I took over the helm 7 years ago, while keeping our support operations basically flat around 60 FTEs. That is important to keep in mind when thinking about our long-term potential in terms of leveraging our platform. And as you can see on the right-hand side of the slide, we are relentlessly working with what I think is one very important key ratio indeed, and that is increasing revenue per head.

And before we conclude, I would also obviously like to have a few words about our operating cost level. Next slide, please. That level increased by 9% in the quarter or some NOK 30 million, mainly as a consequence of consolidating FIH partners and some nonrecurring costs. To a lesser degree, cost inflation contributed this quarter, meaning that our underlying like-for-like cost base is pretty stable. As you can see in the middle of this slide, our compensation to revenue ratio increased slightly, partly as -- well, a technical function of the reclassification in accounting, as alluded to earlier, with more contribution from net financials and less to revenues. So it's more of a technical thing that increase.

So let's summarize what I think are the key takeaways on the next slide before opening up the floor for any questions. In spite of elevated volatility and geopolitical tensions hampering market activity, we had a very resilient top line development in line with last year. Our strong brokerage and research platform contributed to this stability. Our pipeline is intact, meaning that we are well positioned to return to growth in a more normalized market environment. And the increase in our cost base is mainly related to the integration of FIH Partners. And we are very confident the inclusion of that very strong team to our platform will support long-term growth. So with that, I thought we'd open up the floor for any questions.

We have not received any questions from the floor today as of yet.

Okay. Crystal clear. Should there be any questions, you know where to find us, please reach out to Anna, Anna Tropp, and she will coordinate should you have any follow-ups. And yours truly, Kristian Fyksenor; my CFO, Geir Olsen, will follow up accordingly. Anna, before we close, still no questions.

No questions.

Okay. Thank you for your attention, and thank you for tuning in, and I wish you a very good Wednesday. Thank you.

Okay. Good morning, all, and a warm welcome to ABG Sundal Collier's Q4 results presentation. Before we kick off the presentation, I would like to mention that we will, as usually 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 we will answer all your questions in turn.

We ended the year on a high, and we are entering 2026 from a position of strength. We have continued to build momentum during the year, and we have proven our ability to deliver with market conditions in 2025 sometimes being helpful and sometimes being anything but helpful. We have continued to focus on what we can influence, namely, how we advise our clients, how we execute on our advice and our own growth strategy and how we resolve situations that arise either because of market conditions or client-specific circumstances.

And we have continued to focus on ensuring our own profitability, also short term, enabling us to make long-term investments to take investment costs that will drive long-term profitability. Business-wise, we are happy to observe continued strength within our debt capital markets operations and not least within our M&A operations with record high revenues for us in 2025.

Conditions in equity capital markets have gradually improved during the year and IPO activity picked up somewhat in 2025, especially in Sweden. Even though IPOs tend to be the product that is the most sensitive in our product portfolio to general volatility, either economically or politically induced, we observed that our backlog when it comes to IPOs is in a better shape entering 2026 versus 2025.

We continue to improve our firm to become the Nordic investment bank of choice, the investment bank of choice for clients, talents and investors. We continue to focusing on strengthening our positions in our core operations as well as developing our business by broadening our offering to new client groups, such as private banking and alternative investments.

On that note, strengthening our position, we are pleased with having succeeded in joining forces with FIH Partners in Denmark, the by far top-ranked independent financial adviser in Denmark for a decade. And we are doing that at a point in time with all-time high revenues in our current Danish operations. By continuing on this track, we are committed to our long-term targets of increasing revenue per head by at least 20% versus the 2024 level and to deliver a mid-cycle operating margin of at least 25%.

So in the fourth quarter that just ended, this resulted in us if we flip to the next slide, looking at the numbers, please. Delivering revenue growth of 15% to NOK 720 million. This growth is a result of, especially in the quarter, a strength in our M&A operations. But looking at the entire year, we have had solid contributions from all geographies and product areas as well as sectors. In the full year, we ended up with revenues of NOK 2.172 billion, a top line growth of 12% with, as alluded to earlier, broad contribution from all geographies with Denmark delivering all-time higher revenues and solid growth from both Sweden and Norway as well.

Continuing with our operating margin that increased with 2 percentage points from 21% to 23%. That includes -- the 23% includes costs for setting up our new business initiatives, private banking and alternative investments and that had a negative effect on the operating margin of some 3 percentage points in 2025 versus some 2 percentage points in 2024. We delivered earnings per share at NOK 0.26 in the quarter, up from NOK 0.21, an increase of 24%, highlighting the operational leverage in our business. Year-to-date, our EPS ended up at NOK 0.66 versus NOK 0.56 on a fully diluted basis last year, including the investments once again in our new business initiative, having a negative impact on EPS by NOK 0.07 this year and NOK 0.06 last year, respectively.

So let's continue looking at the macro and market backdrop. The markets continue to be supported by low volatility in the quarter, even though we had some spikes in the quarter with VIX sitting well above the 20 level a couple of times, introducing short-term hesitation amongst the investor community. But we are at a low level, and we feel that the conditions have stabilized.

Credit conditions have also continued to improve. Credit spreads, as illustrated on the right-hand side of this chart, continue to tighten, and we have seen the very strong conditions in debt capital markets in Q4 continuing into the start of this year. So with strong credit conditions, low volatility and a market that seems to be very, very reluctant to take everything that is stated from a political point of view. As granted, we feel that we have stronger conditions for us to deliver looking at the market situation 2026 versus 2025.

Continuing with the next slide and looking at how our main markets within Investment Banking have performed in the Nordics during the year and the last couple of quarters and starting off with equity capital markets. The headline number is, of course, impressive with an increase of 77% to NOK 139 billion in total volumes in the fourth quarter, 2025. This is slightly distorted by one or two large transactions and the biggest one being the DKK 60 billion rights issue in Orsted in Q4, a transaction that is typically not part of our addressable market.

Excluding that and maybe one other one-off, so to speak, transaction, ECM volumes were actually down both in the quarter and full year, as you can see, excluding these rights issues on the left-hand side of the chart.

Debt capital markets on the contrary, the headline number is very representative for actual underlying performance in markets being very, very strong. 2025 was a record year in terms of volumes overall. And we are pleased with our own position within DCM, strengthening our position in Sweden to become the #1 player in DCM high-yield 2025. The uptick and recovery seen from 2021 is, to some extent, of course, cyclical, but not only that, it is a structural growth we are witnessing. The very vibrant Nordic DCM market has attracted many non-Nordic issuers as well looking to tap into the opportunities offered here.

And finally, looking at the M&A market, that continues to be, well, stable or muted depending on how you want to look at it. In the absence of the expected pickup in activity levels, such as structured processes, not the bilateral ones we've seen dominating the arena so far, number of transactions is still rather muted. Volumes actually down by 5% in the quarter year-on-year. And more or less flat, up by 4% full year -- over full year last year.

Okay. Moving over, looking to the next slide on how we performed against this backdrop. In our Corporate Financing operations, we delivered revenues at NOK 736 million in the full year, which is down by 7% versus 2024. As you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, we closed numerous transactions during the quarter with a widespread between both ECM and DCM sectors and geographies. A couple of IPOs during the quarter, one in India for Orkla and one in Norway and lots of secondary placings, our DCM operation was highly active, as you can see in the quarter with quite a few large transactions completed.

Moving over to the next slide, please, looking at how we did in our M&A business. Well, we delivered what can be, I'd say, best described as a stunning set of numbers. Revenue accelerated during the year, with Q4 ending up at NOK 334 million, up by 55% and versus Q4 last year, and we reached a revenue level of NOK 829 million for the full year, which is up by 44%. This is by far a record in terms of M&A revenues for us, outperforming the general activity in the market.

And as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, we closed quite a few high-profile transactions during the quarter, yet again, with a decent spread between sectors and contribution from all geographies.

Let's continue with looking at our Brokerage and Research operations. The headline number in terms of revenues has been remarkably steady over the last 4 or 5 years, with revenues around the NOK 600 million mark. We actually reached above the 2021 post-MiFID world record level with NOK 606 million in revenues, which is up by 7% year-on-year. But looking under the hood, there are differences, as always, between our different desks, locations and products, with Norway equity sales yet again, delivering impressive growth, not least from new brokerage clients and I'd say, stability elsewhere.

I would also like to highlight the strong performance within our Research department. We cover some 400 companies, which is amongst the highest of all Nordic investment banks, which is crucial for our ability to deliver on both Brokerage and IPOs over time, of course. In the latest Prospera survey, we achieved top 3 positions in 23 sectors, including the #1 position in important sectors such as Bank and Financials in Sweden, and Shipping, Seafood, Materials, Real Estate and Construction in Norway. Well done, all.

Okay. So over to the next slide, please, looking at our headcount that has been rather or very stable, I would say, over the last couple of years. We have a continued focus on growth of front staff. We have in these numbers included our new business initiatives of which private banking is the biggest one, which is in line with our strategy. But the average year-to-date of 332 FTEs is basically flat versus same period last year. We are ready to grow that number now.

We have, meanwhile, slimmed -- continued to slim our Support and Operations division slightly, and we will continue to focus on leveraging our well-invested platform further, not least as illustrated by the acquisition of FIH in Denmark. And as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, we have come a long way in our target of improving revenue per head by at least 20% versus 2024. The task ahead now is to keep and improved that level slightly while increasing number of FTEs, mainly on front operations. That is the most important definition for us when it comes to continued profitable growth.

Okay. Let's continue looking at our operating cost level. That increased by 10% to NOK 1.681 billion, which is an increase by, yes, 10% basically. While we have kept the compensation to revenue ratio steady around 55-plus percent, the increased profitability obviously is the main driver for the increase in costs due to our variable remuneration model. IT systems, where inflation comes with a bit of a lag, increased costs for IT systems and increased activity levels on our front operation contributes further to that slight cost increase, as do our investments in our new ventures, even though the year-on-year effect is marginal. But looking at our underlying fixed cost base in Q4 eliminating the still negative effects from the weak and -- weaker NOK, especially in relation to SEK, the underlying cost base is flat year-on-year.

So let's flip to the next slide and talk about -- a bit about our capitalization and the proposed dividend, which is NOK 0.55 per share. That proposal reflects our commitment to distribute excess capital back to shareholders through cash dividends and buybacks. It should be noted that the core capital effect from the acquisition of FIH, the goodwill effect, is some NOK 100 million or NOK 0.18 per diluted share. NOK 0.55 in dividend allows for both a healthy cash distribution and buybacks while maintaining solid capitalization, as you can see on the right-hand side of this graph.

So before we conclude, I would like to draw your attention to our acquisition of FIH Partners. By joining forces with FIH, we will significantly strengthen our position in Denmark. We are joining forces with a firm that is #1 within Danish M&A and also has been ranked as the #1 financial adviser in Prospera for basically the last decade. This is a firm that has closed over 200 transactions with some EUR 110 billion in deal value. We are welcoming some 27 professionals to the ABG family with a combined plus 200 years of experience.

If we continue with the next slide, yes, we are joining forces also with FIH at a point in time where, as I alluded to earlier, we are delivering our best year ever in Denmark. From our combined #1 position in Denmark, we can now offer a much broader product portfolio, such as bonds or IPOs, for instance, to a larger client group. We are convinced we are a perfect fit with both of us having a strong partnership culture and eagerness to win. We take nothing for granted, but our own ability to deliver top-notch services and advice to our clients as well as potential clients.

By joining forces by -- with FIH, our clear ambition is to fortify the #1 position within Danish M&A and build a market-leading position within ECM and DCM. This is exactly in line with our strategic ambitions to strengthen our positions in core markets and to leverage our already well-invested platform.

So with that, I'd like to summarize the key takeaways from Q4 and the full year. We had a strong year and a strong quarter, not least. In the quarter, revenue is up by 15% and 12% for the full year. This year, the main driver behind our growth, both in the quarter and full year is our remarkably strong M&A operations. Having said that, ECM conditions improved during the year and the IPO window reopened, particularly in Sweden.

DCM continued on a high level, and we kept our strong position overall in the Nordic high-yield segment. Brokerage and Research continued to deliver stable and solid revenues throughout the year. And we demonstrated our ability to execute on our strategy with the acquisition of FIH, at the same time as ABG Denmark delivered its best year ever. The development over the last couple of years with better contribution and stronger positions across all geographies has strengthened our diversified business model further.

So with that, I'd like to open up the floor for questions should there be any.

Yes, we have received one. That is, what is your current pipeline visibility?

Yes, that's a very good question. Pipeline is one thing in terms of gross numbers, the absolute number. Quality is another thing. And I think the best way to measure quality, high versus low, is to look at how diversified the pipeline is. Diversified in terms of products, sectors and geographies. And from that point of view, I'd say that we are in a better shape pipeline-wise than in a long time.

As always, the obvious disclaimer is that market conditions short term can obviously be a bit of an obstacle. But once again, having such a diversified pipeline entering 2026 makes me comfortable we are on a continued path to growth.

I believe that was it from the audience today.

Okay. Yours truly and Kristian Fyksen, our CEO in Norway, are ready to take on any questions, should you have any follow-ups. We will be talking to media and we stuck short term, but please do not hesitate to reach out. I'd suggest that you contact Anna Tropp if you have any further follow-ups, and we will try to revert as soon as possible. Thank you for tuning in this morning.

Good morning all, and a warm welcome to our Q3 results presentation. Before we kick off the presentation, I would like to mention that we will, as usually have a Q&A session after the presentation. And should you want to raise a question, please use the Q&A function on Teams and we will answer all questions in turn.

We delivered a strong set of numbers in the quarter. And in fact, our second highest third quarter revenues ever with healthy operational leverage and strong growth of EPS. This is important since it proves our ability to deliver strong results today while investing in profitable long-term growth. We're also happy to observe continued strength in our debt capital markets and M&A operations. And we also observed higher activity in equity capital markets overall, especially in Sweden. In fact, when it comes to IPOs, Stockholm is the leading listing venue in Europe year-to-date and looking at our pipeline Swedish IPOs. We have reasons to be optimistic when it comes to our own performance in this regard the next couple of quarters.

Furthermore, we continue to improve -- work to improve our firm to become the Nordic Investment Bank of choice, the Investment Bank of choice for clients, talent and investors. We continue to focus on strengthening our positions in our core operations as well as developing our business by broadening our offering to new client groups, such as our recently launched Private Bank and alternative investments operations. We are pleased with the reception of our private bank from clients, not least, looking at the most important metric, i.e., the conversion from initial dialogues to actual onboarding of clients. While it will take some time before these new business initiatives makes a meaningful contribution to our revenues, they will further diversify our revenue base and contribute to improved profitability over time.

Meanwhile, we will continue to work relentlessly to gain market shares in our core areas, and we will add resources in terms of number of employees and partners. By using our key assets, people and technology and by communicating more clearly what we do and building our brand awareness, we have a clear path for gaining round and increase revenues further. By doing this, we are committed to our long-term targets of increasing our revenue per head by at least 20% versus 2024 over the cycle and to deliver a mid-cycle operating margin of at least 25%.

So in the third quarter that just ended, this resulted in us, if we flip to the next slide and look at the numbers, please. It ended in us delivering revenue growth of 21% to NOK 476 million. This growth is a result of our diversified platform, delivering as designed with a broad contribution from products, geographies and sectors. The growth in Sweden in this particular quarter stands out with continued solid contribution elsewhere.

Looking at our operating margin in the first 9 months of the year ended, that ended at just north of 20%. If we look at our core business, excluding our new growth initiatives, our operating margin went from just south of 20% to just north of 21%, an improvement of some 1.5 basis points year-to-date 2025 versus same period last year. And looking at our underlying margin, excluding new business ventures, year-to-date is around 23%. Our ambition is, of course, that our new ventures shall contribute to improving our operating margin and profitability even though it will, as alluded to earlier, take some time before we can see that in the actual numbers.

We delivered earnings per share at NOK 0.14, up from NOK 0.09 in the quarter, an increase of 56%, highlighting the operational leverage once again in our business. Year-to-date, earnings per share ended up at NOK 0.41 versus NOK 0.35 last year. And should we exclude investments in new ventures, the same numbers would have been NOK 0.46 and NOK 0.38, respectively.

So let's continue with the next slide, please, and look at the macro and market backdrop. After what was a bit of a roller coaster, the second quarter with the tariff war that shocked the market at the beginning and then a very sharp recovery. The third quarter was more stable with U.S. equities markets regaining the lead in terms of outperforming the global indices as well as the Nordic indices, especially driven by NASDAQ and the tech sector. Volatility was -- continued to be low and stable, and both U.S. interest rates and credit spreads continued to tighten, highlighting the increase in risk appetite amongst investors. All in all, this is a good foundation for our core markets to perform.

So if we continue with the next slide, please, and look at our main markets within Investment Banking performed in the Nordics during the quarter and over the last couple of years. And starting off with Equity Capital Markets, it is clear that volumes overall have continued to be rather muted on a Nordic -- in a Nordic perspective. Having said that, as I alluded to earlier, the IPO activity in Sweden specifically, also continuing into the fourth quarter is encouraging. All in all, volumes were up in Equity Capital Markets by some 30% in the quarter, close to 24% -- sorry, in the quarter, but that was in all fairness versus a very weak comp Q3 last year. And looking at a rolling 12-month basis, you can see volumes are still muted at NOK 178 billion in the Nordics, actually a slight decline versus 2024, even though we expect activity to pick up led by not lease activity in Sweden.

Continuing with debt capital markets, the path to recovery has been very clear and convincing with rolling 12 months, as you can see at the bottom hand side of this slide but with the last 12-month volumes actually reaching above the previous peak in 2021. This is, to some extent, a cyclical recovery, but it also highlights the structural growth that we have talked about a lot previously of the very vibrant Nordic DCM market with many non-Nordic issuers looking to tap into the opportunities offered here.

And finally, looking at M&A that continues to be stable, continues to be the least dramatic area in our Investment Banking portfolio in terms of stability. But in the absence of the expected pickup that we and other of our colleagues in the industry have talked about over the last quarters, M&A in the Nordics is still rather muted with volumes in terms of number of transactions actually down in the quarter year-on-year and flat on a rolling 12-month basis.

So if we continue with the next slide, please, and look how we have performed in these markets and looking at -- starting off with our combined corporate financing operations. We are on a year-to-date basis, slightly down after the general weakness in the second quarter with revenues just north of NOK 0.5 billion versus NOK 531 million last year in the same period. However, looking at our performance in the third quarter specifically, our revenues were up by 20%, reflecting stronger markets and not least our debt capital markets performing well.

And as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, there is good contribution from the entire range of products and sectors in our combined capital markets operations, 3 IPOs, 2 out of Sweden and 1 in Norway this quarter, coupled with a number of placings. And as you can see, on the lower right-hand side of this slide, lots of DCM activity, where I would specifically like to highlight the European Entertainment Group issue of EUR 585 million bond, setting a new all-time high in terms of size for an unrated Nordic bond issuer.

Moving on to the next slide, please. Looking at our M&A business. We yet again delivered a rock-solid performance with several large deals closed during the quarter, also with good contribution from all geographies. Revenues in the quarter specifically, ended up at NOK 156 million, an increase by more than 40% versus last year and at NOK 496 million in the first 9 months, up by 37% versus the same period last year in a market that has been fairly flat. On the right-hand side of this slide, we have some selected transactions where I'd like to highlight the Renewable Energy Company transaction in Denmark, Silex in Sweden and also our stronghold in Norwegian -- in the Norwegian TMT sector.

Let's continue with the next slide, please, and look at our Brokerage and Research operations where we can conclude that we continue to deliver solid revenues at NOK 127 million in the quarter, a slight increase versus a rather tough comp in the third quarter last year. Revenues ended up at NOK 453 million in the first 9 months of this year, which is up by some 10%. That means we are now on a level at -- of NOK 609 million on a rolling 12 months basis, and our Brokerage and Research operations thus continues to deliver rock solid contribution to our revenue base.

And finally, before touching on some concluding remarks, let's look at headcount and costs. So we'll flip to the next slide, please, where we can see a very undramatic chart in terms of number of full-time employees. As you can see, it's been very stable over the last couple of years in spite of our focus on growth on front staff included Private Banking. The average year-to-date of 335 full-time employees is basically flat versus the same period last year, meaning we have continued to focus on efficiency and focus on our support and operations division. The ratio of front staff to total staff is now at a record high of 82%. And while we continue to focus on keeping a high efficiency level, there is obviously a level where this ratio to some extent can become a bit too high, where we start to become inefficient on our front operations. So I would not expect this ratio to change dramatically over time as we grow the number of full-time employees going forward.

Let's continue with the next slide. Looking at our operating cost level, that increased in the first 9 months of the year by 11% to NOK 1.161 billion. While we have kept the compensation to revenue ratio steady around, as you can see, 56%, 57%, the increase in revenues and profitability obviously is the main driver for the increase in costs due to our variable remuneration model. Also, our investments in our new ventures explain some of the cost increase. But looking at our underlying fixed cost base in Q3, it's very much in line with last year and recent quarters.

So let's continue with the next slide, and let me summarize what I think the key takeaways are here. We had a strong quarter with revenues up by plus 12% and EPS by 56%, demonstrating our strong operational leverage. We are both short and long-term focused in our approach, short-term profitability paves the way for investing in long-term profitable growth. We had solid contribution from all business areas to our revenue growth with our M&A and debt capital markets operations as the main contributors to the growth in the quarter year-on-year. We're also happy to observe that IPO activity has picked up in Sweden with Stockholm being the leading listing venue in Europe year-to-date. And we are furthermore encouraged by our own pipeline in this regard in Sweden. We are pleased with the early success in our Private Banking operations as illustrated by the strong conversion from initial dialogues to client onboarding. And we will continue to strengthen our core business by targeted senior hires, coupled with junior hires to support growth further.

So with that, I'd like to open the floor for any questions.

Yes. What trends are emerging in Sweden's equity capital market to make Stockholm such a strong listing venue?

Yes. That is a great question, but the answer is both simple and difficult. But the main reason is that we have an incredible depth in the Swedish market as proven by the recent large successful IPOs and that is due to the unique ecosystem in Sweden of investors with an unusual large number of institutional investors, not only large ones, but also in an international context, many smaller ones, providing the opportunity also for smaller IPOs that would have been more difficult to pursue outside the Nordics at least.

On top of that, investing in equities is somewhat of a national sport with an extreme interest and debt from retail as well. And since we are a true Nordic investment bank that we are completely agnostic about listing venues for our clients. This is, of course, an opportunity also for non-Swedish issuers to exploit, we think.

Any...

Thank you. I think that's it from the floor.

Okay. Many thanks for tuning in. And should you have any follow-up questions, do not hesitate to contact either yours truly or Geir Olsen. Thank you.

Good morning all, and a warm welcome to ABG Sundal Collier's Q2 Results presentation. Before we kick off the presentation, I would like to mention as usually that we will have a Q&A session after the presentation. And should you want to raise a question, please use the function in Teams, and we will answer all your questions in turn.

I have met several investors during the spring who have made me realize that there is room for improvement in terms of our communication about who we are. and what we do further to improve our business and firm to become the Nordic Investment Bank of choice, the investment bank of choice for clients, talent and investors. What ABG is today is quite different from a few years ago. We are way less dependent on any single product such as IPOs, for instance, compared to, let's say, 10 years ago.

We have strengthened our positions in all relevant product areas within investment banking, debt equities, M&A and advisory, and we have just launched our biggest initiative for decades, private banking as well as an alternative investment fund. While it will take some time before these new business initiatives will make a meaningful contribution to our revenues, they will further diversify our revenue base and contribute to improved profitability. We will continue to work relentlessly to gain market shares in our core areas by working smarter, and not least by implementing new technology and leveraging our nimble and agile organization and by making better use of our internal resources.

But we will also add resources in terms of number of FTEs, not least business-generating senior partners within our firm. That is by using our key assets, people and technology, and by communicating more clearly what we do and building our brand awareness, we have a clear path for gaining ground and increase revenues further. By doing this, we are committed to our long-term targets of increasing our revenue per head by 20% versus 2024, and deliver a mid-cycle operating margin of at least 25%. So in the second quarter that just ended, this resulted in us if we flip to the slide looking at the numbers, please. Delivering revenue growth of 12% to NOK 570 million. We achieved this in a quarter that was, let's say, to some extent, a bit of a roller coaster with a trade war escalating early April and then a market recovery making June, a very strong month, indeed.

We stayed our course on focusing on providing the best advice and execution for our clients, solving the task at hand and providing solid advice is even more important in volatile markets. I firmly believe that the value of our independent advice without potential conflict of interest from other business activities with clients, such as balance sheet lending has increased as of late. Continuing looking at our operating margin in the first half of the year, that ended up at 20%, a decent level, however, below our long-term ambition and long-term target of at least 25% in a mid-cycle environment. But bear in mind that excluding our new business ventures, I alluded to earlier, our operating margin would have been some 3 percentage points higher.

Our ambition is, of course, that our new ventures will contribute to improving our operating profitability over time. We delivered earnings per share at NOK 0.18 up from NOK 0.16 in the quarter. Should we exclude the above-mentioned investments in new business initiatives, earnings per share would have been some NOK 0.4 and NOK 0.2 higher year-to-date and first half 2024, respectively. So continuing to the next slide, please, and look at what the market type of conditions market gave us and look at the market backdrop. As I mentioned, market recovered quickly in mid-April after the initial trade war shock upon realizing that the U.S. President and his administration actually listened to market, not least the bond markets. That in turn led to credit spreads tightening again after an initial widening in mid-April, back to pre Liberation Day levels in the second quarter as did equity markets ending up higher than pre Liberation Day.

This recovery was supported by the volatility index coming back below 20%, again, after peaking north of 50 in mid-April and volatility in the below 20 is all else equal, a good foundation for continued recovery in activity in capital markets. Continuing with the next slide, please, looking at how our main markets in the Nordics within investment banking have performed during the quarter and the last couple of years. Starting off with the equity Nordic equity capital markets, it's clear that volumes have continued to be -- well, let's say rather muted to say the least in the quarter. Having said that, as eluded earlier, we witnessed a recovery in activity towards the end of the quarter, not least in Sweden, specifically. All in all, volumes were still down in equity capital markets by some 50% in the quarter year-on-year. And on a rolling 12-month basis, volumes were as at, as you can see, relatively muted level down by 14% even though we saw some encouraging sign for future activity, not least by, as you can see, the dark blue shaded part of the gross, the staples there, where you have a bit of an uptick in IPO activity.

It's still very muted levels. It's too early to say that this has really changed significantly and state that the IPO window is open again, way too early, but some encouraging signs at least. Continuing with the debt capital markets, the recovery from the Liberation Day shock was even more evident earlier in the quarter. compared to equity capital markets. That recovery from early May was, however, not enough to make up for what was a very strong second quarter volume-wise last year resulting in volumes down by some 20% year-on-year in the quarter. That said, we are still at very high activity levels in the DCM space, illustrating the structural growth of the very vibrant Nordic debt capital market. And finally, looking at M&A, the M&A market, that continues to be stable. But in the absence of, I would say, the widely expected pickup in activity levels. M&A in the Nordics stayed rather muted with volumes actually down 20% in the quarter, 16% in the quarter year-on-year and by 2% on a rolling 12 months basis.

Continuing with the next slide, looking at how we performed in these markets and starting off with corporate financing, we were, of course, affected by the drop in volumes in both ECM and DCM in the second quarter, with revenues down by 23% in the quarter and 16% in the first half of the year with revenues ending up at NOK 311 million for the first half of the year. This specific quarter, the Swedish capital market was somewhat stronger or less muted perhaps than the Norwegian one, which also was reflected in our numbers. As you can see on the right-hand side of this slide, there is good contribution from the entire range of products, even though it's far from the normal market, it's still encouraging to see that we actually have been involved in a couple of IPOs during the quarter.

We were active with private placements and not least with high-yield bonds, which is a significant revenue contributor to our capital markets operation during the second quarter. Let's continue with the next slide, looking at how we did within our M&A operations. And I can say that clearly state that we delivered a rock-solid performance with several large deals being closed during the quarter. As you might recall, M&A tends to be heavily tilted towards the last quarter, towards Q4 with historically around 40% of our yearly M&A revenues being booked in any given Q4 over the last years. Our Q2 performance was more in line with what we've seen over the last couple of Q4 numbers and as such, a super solid set of numbers with NOK 227 million being booked in the quarter versus NOK 128 million last year, resulting in an increase of our M&A revenues of some 33% year-to-date versus first half year 2024.

On the right-hand side of the slide, we have some selected transactions listed, as you can see, and it's a wide range or different sectors represented as well as different type of deals, including a high-profile public to private transaction Crayon, a NOK 15.5 billion buyout. And let's continue with the last of our operating business areas, brokerage and research. We continue to see good momentum and increased momentum in revenue growth during the quarter with revenues up by 15% in Q2 to NOK 155 million and resulting in a 13% increase in the first half of the year. That means we are now above our 2021 numbers on brokerage and research on a rolling fourth quarter basis, with NOK 605 million in revenues the last 12 months. Our performance is more based on strong execution in our team rather than volatility saving the day in early April. So I would categorize this as a strong team effort in other words.

So let's continue with the next slide. And looking at headcount. That has been pretty stable, even though we have, as you can see, over the last couple of years, grown our headcount in line with the strategy I alluded to earlier. And I would expect this number to increase cautiously and selectively during the next 12, 24 months. Continuing with the next slide, please. Looking at costs, specifically during the first half of the year, we stayed at the same compensation to revenue ratio around 56%, 57%. That has been the number for the last few years, in line with our historical average, resulting obviously, in a slight increase in compensation costs on the back of higher revenues. Some of the increase in cost is also by design, as alluded to earlier, investing in our new ventures, private banking and alternative investments. Whereas other drivers continue to be, unfortunately, cost inflation, that is difficult to mitigate short term.

Looking specifically at non-compensation costs that are -- that is up by NOK 32 million to NOK 236 million in the quarter. Some 50% of that increase is due to inflation and FX, where inflation is by far the most important factor. And the remaining circa 50% can be best described as a function of higher activity levels in our front operations, such as increased cost of sales on our brokerage operations that is partly driven by volumes and more client activities generally.

So let's flip slide and do some concluding remarks. I think after the initial shock in April with markets being in a very, very negative trend, obviously, on the back of the world economy potentially being thrown back a couple of decades or even more. We had a swift recovery. We capitalized on that recovery and especially, we stated our course within the M&A operations, as alluded earlier, resulting in a very strong June performance and M&A performance in the quarter overall resulting in us closing more than 15 deals during the quarter, and contributing to our strong revenue growth.

We are also pleased with the commercial progress of our 2 newest ventures, ABG alternatives investments successfully raised NOK 1.5 billion, NOK 1.45 billion and launched its first fund, Samfond, focused on investments in social infrastructure across Norway. And our Private Banking platform has gone live during the quarter, welcoming its first clients and generating a very strong early interest indeed. So with that, I thought I'd leave the floor open for any questions.

We have received one question here. Based on the few IPOs you've seen in Q2, what can you tell about the investor appetite?

Yes. That's a good one. Obviously, we have seen investors becoming or stayed more picky after becoming very picky a couple of years ago, increasing their requirements on what type of assets for companies that can be IPO-ed. Having said that, high-quality assets or companies can be IPO-ed at decent valuation levels and with good investor demand.

Proven track record, good management, strong cash flow or a very clear path to credible path to cash flows, tick those boxes. And our message is that investor demand is high. Picky but high for the right type of assets.

Thank you. I believe that's it from the audience.

Okay. Do not hesitate to contact me or my CFO, Geir Olsen should you have any follow-up questions, and thank you for tuning in.