Interim Report January–June 2008

Stronger Nordic position

January – June 2008
• Operating profit dropped by 6 percent to SEK 368.8 million (SEK 394.2 million).
• Profit after tax dropped by 47 percent to SEK 66.6 million (SEK 124.5 million).
• Basic earnings per share dropped by 47 percent to SEK 0.40 (SEK 0.75).
• Non-recurring items burdened profits in the amount of SEK 11.7 million. Costs related to personnel cutbacks amounted to SEK 7.5 million and goodwill write-downs attributed to the insurance business amounted to SEK 4.2 million.

Second quarter
• Operating profit dropped by 7 percent to SEK 175.9 million (SEK 188.7 million).
• Profit after tax dropped by 48 percent to SEK 28.4 million (SEK 55.1 million).
• Basic earnings per share dropped by 48 percent to SEK 0.17 (SEK 0.33).
• As of the third quarter, annual costs are reduced by about SEK 60 million.
• Increased market shares in all Nordic markets.
• The number of accounts increased by 8 percent during the second quarter, reaching a total of 213,700 (+28 percent over a 12-month period). Clients' invested capital remained unchanged during the second quarter and totaled SEK 52.7 billion (-8 percent over a 12-month period).


CEO's statement

Focus on growth and profitability
The Nordic region is our domestic market and during both the first and second quarters we strengthened our position with increased market shares in all Nordic markets, mostly due to our initiatives in the active segment.

We've achieved our objective to reduce costs to SEK 35 million per month excluding marketing already at the start of the third quarter of this year. The announced personnel cutbacks have been implemented and our ambition is to reduce our costs further. Progress has been rapid and this has helped our organization keep momentum, ready to meet our long-term goals head on.

During the second quarter, the main index of each Nordic exchange fell by 1 to 10 percent except Norway's. The Norwegian market climbed 15 percent. In the second quarter, we saw a slight recovery from the turbulent market situation of the first quarter, though in June all indices fell dramatically and we anticipate weak market development for the rest of the year.

We've experienced good growth in account numbers and total invested capital remains unchanged, despite poor market performance. Total lending is at record levels, mostly due to more clients choosing to margin lend rather than borrowers increasing their exposure.

We saw the price war calm and net commission rates stabilize in the second quarter.

We've successfully competed with simplicity, freedom of choice, and value for money and in this way have won increasing market shares in the savings market over the past ten years. Competition for the SEK 2,000 billion saved in pension schemes on the Swedish market has just begun with the reintroduction of transfer rights on May 1. We've already seen great interest in transferring pensions to Nordnet. During the third quarter, we'll launch our new management services, which will further increase the attraction of our offering. In addition to an improved product offering, we'll increase our sales focus in the next quarter.

In the second quarter, Nordnet Pension gained a new CEO, Johan Furenmo, who has solid sales experience in pensions, thereby increasing the sales focus.


Carl-Viggo Östlund
Chief Executive Officer