• Navigating a turbulent market
• Q1 revenues of NOK 426m (NOK 487m)
• Q1 diluted EPS of NOK 0.12 (NOK 0.17)
• The product mix is working in our favour

CEO comment:

Following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and the subsequent turbulence in the banking and finance sector, the supporting capital markets environment heading into 2023 was negatively impacted by increased market volatility. Consequently, activity was high in the secondary brokerage and research part of our business while some of the planned primary capital markets transactions were postponed or put on hold. Still, we completed several equity private placements and high-yield bond transactions in the quarter, albeit with short execution windows, including the IPOs of Seacrest (Norway), Gubra (Denmark) and Himalaya Shipping (US). We experienced decent activity in the M&A segment, but there were fewer transactions closed relative to the highly active first quarter of last year.

Total Q1 revenues of NOK 426m fell 12% short of last year, but this was still a fair performance given the market sentiment compared to the same time period historically. We are staying committed to the strategy of strengthening our position and offering to our clients, while keeping the long-term proven track record of strong profitability. While we have grown headcount significantly in recent years, we have still managed to retain a solid revenue-per-head, and further increased our focus on costs and efficiency.

We are also working actively to continue to diversify our operations, with a focus on broadening and further developing the talent pool to maximize the potential of our teams. The increase in headcount this year is partly been related to the expansion into new business areas that are not yet contributing to the stream of revenues. The process of setting up these business areas is running according to plan, and they are expected to start generating revenues in 2024.

I often talk about our ambition to reach higher highs, and higher lows, and I believe that this past quarter is an indication of the latter. While we cannot influence challenging markets, we can impact how we operate in such conditions and how we perform on a relative basis. I believe that we are delivering solid results and that having a broad product mix is working in our favour. The pipeline is continuously being replenished, and I feel confident in our ability to continue developing our business and our organisation as well as increase our profitability.

For further information:

Jonas Strom, CEO                                +46 8 566 294 68

Geir B. Olsen, CFO                               +47 22 01 60 35

Please find attached the Q1 Interim Report. A presentation will be held as a webcast at 09:00 CEST and can be accessed through a weblink or call-in details presented on our corporate website www.abgsc.com.

This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation article 7 and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. This stock exchange announcement was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 08:00 CEST on 26 April 2023.