Good profit trends for Agasti’s new activities – old business will soon be history

• Adjusted EBIT of NOK 11 million and adjusted EBITDA of NOK 15 million in fourth quarter. Adjusted EBIT of NOK 44 million and adjusted EBITDA of NOK 59 million in 2014.
• After expensing of NOK 35 million in the fourth quarter relating to the restructuring of the organisation, reached settlements and provisions for potential settlements, EBITDA ended at NOK -17 million and EBIT at NOK -24 million for the quarter. For 2014, EBITDA ended at NOK -1 million and EBIT at NOK -20 million after the expensing of a total of NOK 63 million relating to the restructuring, provisions for potential settlements and reached settlements.
• Jørgen Pleym Ulvness is taking on greater operative responsibility by leading Agasti’s largest business area, Investment Management, and placing more focus on ongoing operations.
• Establishing transaction-based restructuring in Obligo, as well as further targeting of activities towards institutional and professional investors.
• Intensive process to wind up old business. All alternatives are being considered, and a decision may be reached in the near future.
• Continous process to adjust organisational setup to current business model, including possible outsourcing of certain functions.
• Generally high level of activity within both transactions and brokerage services.

The Agasti Group is continuing the positive developments in operating activities while former business activities are simultaneously being wound up. Agasti achieved an adjusted EBIT of NOK 44 million and an adjusted EBITDA of NOK 59 million for ongoing operating activities in 2014. In the fourth quarter, adjusted EBIT ended at NOK 11 million and adjusted EBITDA at NOK 15 million. In the same periods, write-downs on software as a result of a more focused business model have been charged to the accounts, as well as provisions for future licence costs relating to the termination of the software of NOK 4 million and NOK 6 million respectively. In addition, NOK 26 million has been charged to the accounts for the fourth quarter and NOK 38 million has been charged for 2014 as a result of provisions for potential settlements with claimants who brought legal proceedings relating to investments made during the period 2006-2008 against subsidiaries.

“We are continuing to deliver good results on our new activities. We will soon have wound up former business activities, and will then be left with a future-oriented organisation that has an excellent basis for good performance in the coming years,” says Jørgen Pleym Ulvness, CEO of Agasti Holding ASA.

The Agasti Group is experiencing a generally high level of activity within both Obligo Investment Management (Obligo) and Agasti Wunderlich Capital Markets (AWCM). Agasti is now implementing strategic changes in its organisation in order to ensure even better management of the investment portfolios and to place more focus on institutional and professional investors.

“We are establishing a greater share of our activities around Obligo, where we are now integrating corporate finance services in order to ensure the best possible management of existing portfolios. Through our dynamic investment management model we will create good returns and increased liquidity and dividends for investors through solid management and the transaction-based restructuring of investment portfolios where we identify opportunities for our clients. Agasti Wunderlich Capital Markets will continue to offer brokerage services and corporate finance services, primarily within shipping and energy/oil services,” says Ulvness.

Agasti is focusing the business model by placing greater emphasis on institutional and professional investors. The Agasti Group has an increasing number of clients that are classified as professional and/or institutional investors, from both Norway and abroad. The number of clients that are classified as private, non-professional investors remains at a high, but decreasing, level. These clients are no longer a part of the future strategy in the sense that the Agasti Group will no longer offer new investments directly to this client group. A majority of these clients have invested in one or more of the investment portfolios managed by Obligo, and therefore receive the same follow up on their existing investments as professional and/or institutional investors from the dedicated Obligo Investor Relations team.

 “Managing private investors who do not have specialist skills within financial instruments is resource intensive and demanding. We are now seeing the consequences of this and giving our attention to clients who have such skills. This group of clients has increased significantly during the past two years. This is a change we have considered making over an extended period of time, and which we are now implementing in order to make the company more robust, create a more effective interface towards our clients and ensure greater shareholder value through increased profitability,” says Ulvness.

With the winding up of the investment advisory services in 2014, focusing of activities towards institutional and professional investors, and the winding up of business from Acta by the end of the first half of 2015, the Agasti Group for all practical purposes now only consists of the two new business areas that were established during 2013.

The Investment Management business area consists of the investment management company Obligo Investment Management with subsidiaries and integrated corporate finance services, which is responsible for the restructuring-based and dynamic management of client investments totalling NOK 44 billion within real estate, shipping, private equity and infrastructure. The management team consists of individuals with extensive, broad experience from recognised investment management environments, both within Norway and internationally. In isolation, the business area achieved an operating result of NOK 27 million in 2014.

The Capital Markets business area consists of Agasti Wunderlich Capital Markets and Swedish Navexa Securities, and undertakes activities within secondary trading and project financing, as well as a corporate finance department which offers advisory services and the facilitation of various types of capital markets transactions. In isolation, the business area achieved an operating result of NOK 29 million in 2014.

“As expected, building the new Agasti Group throughout the past two years has been demanding, and it has been absolutely necessary to implement extensive changes. We have established something completely new, are now winding up the former Acta activities, and have managed an inherited reputation that we have worked to improve throughout the process. Along the way, it has been necessary to let around 250 employees go, while simultaneously employing around 100 extremely competent individuals in order to adapt our competence to the new activities. Despite using extensive amounts of time and money on winding up and finalising activities, we are continuing to show stable and positive profit trends over time on underlying operations, while simultaneously making the strategic changes that are necessary in order to ensure the best possible value for clients and shareholders,” says Jørgen Pleym Ulvness.

A complete English version of the interim report for the fourth quarter of 2014 is attached on www.newsweb.no and on Agasti's Investor Relations web pages www.agasti.no.

Contact details:
CEO, Jørgen Pleym Ulvness, phone (+47) 906 67 877
CFO, Christian Dovland, phone (+47) 908 84 730
CCO, Tor Arne Olsen, phone (+47) 900 90 470

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.