Record results – Staying on course in rougher waters

(Hareid, 26 February 2009): Growth continued in ODIM during the fourth quarter as activity in the offshore sector remained high, and revenues and EBITDA hit new record levels.

Revenues for the fourth quarter came to NOK 672.5 million, up by 40.9 per cent from the corresponding period of last year. EBITDA was NOK 128.7 million, an increase of 50.9 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2007. The EBITDA margin increased to 19.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, 1.2 percentage points higher than in the corresponding period of last year and marginally below the record level seen in the third quarter 2008.

The order backlog stood at NOK 2.3 billion at 31 December after an order intake of NOK 322 million in the fourth quarter 2008. The order backlog is still higher than a year ago and offers relatively high visibility for 2009.

"ODIM is presenting a strong result for 2008 with continous improvement in underlying operation and result during the year which ended in an all time high quarter. We have continued to develop new products which will be launched in 2009. These new solutions will be technological groundbreaking and will at the same time offer significant cost saving potential for the customers," comments CEO Jogeir Romestrand.

"After several good years for the industry, we are now experiencing that the financial crisis has changed the external conditions rapidly and the visibility is more limited than in previous years. However, ODIM will meet short-term challenges actively by reducing costs and by continuing to launch new solutions and technologies. In addition, ODIM will seek to benefit from its solid capitalisation, which should offer a competitive advantage in the current environment. Longer term, the global need for energy will continue to increase and this will create significant market opportunities for ODIM in the future," says Romestrand.