Aker ASA (AKAAF) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Aker's Second Quarter and Half Year Results 2026. My name is Fredrik Berge, and I'm Head of Investor Relations. I'm joined by Aker's President and CEO, Oyvind Eriksen, who will take you through the key highlights and recent developments in the portfolio. Our CFO, Svein Oskar Stoknes, will then take you through the financial results in more detail. After the presentation, we will have a Q&A session. And with that, I hand it over to Oyvind Eriksen.

Good morning, and thank you for attending this presentation in the middle of the summer. Today, we're summing up the second quarter and half year 2026, which has been nothing less than consequential for Aker. A portfolio of investments with core assets at the intersection of energy and artificial intelligence has served our shareholders well. Aker's total shareholder return was 10% in the quarter and more than 53% in the first half of the year, outperforming the Oslo Stock Exchange Benchmark Index by a mile. Aker's net asset value made a step-change, too, at almost NOK 40 billion in the first half to NOK 106 billion in total after payment of NOK 2.2 billion in cash dividends. The performance was driven primarily by continued extraordinary growth at Nscale, a landmark divestment of Cognite and great results reported by Aker BP. The Cognite transaction is expected to generate NOK 14.7 billion in cash proceeds to Aker. This will bring Aker's total liquidity to more than NOK 20 billion. This significantly increases our investment capacity to pursue