Ouarterly report fourth quarter 2007

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NHST Media Group’s preliminary fourth quarter pre-tax result amounted to a MNOK 19.6 loss against a MNOK 3.2 profit last year. A considerable increase in more operative sales and editorial activities affected the result for the quarter. In addition there was a relatively heavy investment in various new projects. Dagens Næringsliv D2, the Friday Supplement, and a number of interactive services on the various websites, one acquisition and one merger for the seafood publications, and the establishment of Smartcom in Sweden and the UK are all examples of the new projects launched during the quarter. In addition to this, there are a number of minor forced strategic activities. The quarterly result is also charged with MNOK 8 in higher annual pension costs. For the year 2007 the profit before tax is MNOK 58 against MNOK 66 in 2006.

The high activity in the quarter reflects NHST’s strengthened market positions, a number of new opportunities, and the boom. The turnover for the quarter increased by 14 % to MNOK 266.5 (MNOK 234.5). The biggest growth in turnover came from the Situations Vacant advertisement and the activities on the Internet. All the newspapers increased their circulation income and alle the newspapers enjoyed record circulation at year-end, except Fiskaren. As far as Nautisk Forlag was concerned there was a marked decline in circulation for the quarter, which was primarily due to there being fewer new charts for sale.

Turnover grew by 16% for the year 2007, to MNOK 996 (MNOK 861). Almost the entire growth is organic, showing that the NHST Group’s publications have captured substantial market shares in 2007. The Board is of the opinion that the success is due to good concepts and implementation ability.

Norway and the global market segments in which NHST operates experienced a boom throughout 2007. In parallel to this, two structural changes are going on. One is related to consolidation within traditional newspaper media and the other – definitely the biggest change – is the powerful development within the internet. There is a positive development in the circulation of the Group’s various business newspapers despite the paper-based newspaper markets in general being demanding both from a domestic and an international pint of view. There is increased interest in the subject matters the newspapers are covering and the newspapers are also putting considerable effort into making the subject matter available to more and more readers. Globalisation, structural developments in various industries, and the economic development are contribution to more and more people having a need to read the Group’s newspapers. In addition to being useful to the readership as decision makers, the newspapers also cover relevant financial items of interest to private individuals such as real estate, saving, trends and lifestyles.

It is to satisfy those needs that NHST’s newspapers have been further developed in terms of specialisation and breadth. Circulation trends show that the newspapers have become more attractive and the way market share has developed shows that they are extremely competitive. During the daytime, business news on the internet has developed more or less in the same way as the other internet-based daytime services, whereas the extent of such news and the way in which the news is applied is totally different in the evenings. On the internet, NHST focuses on snap publication of many news items of sufficiently good quality. More serious, in-depth debates such as interest rate developments have produced the best performance of the interactive services. Web TV’s company presentations such as quarterly reports and more company internal matters have grown the most.

Publication by publication

Dagens Næringsliv’s (DN’s) operating profit for the quarter amounted to MNOK 8.9 against MNOK 18.1 last year. The drop in the operating profit is due, in isolation, to the launching of D2 and increased pension costs. Moreover, several major market-related activities were carried out with good results both as far as circulation and advertisements were concerned. The average circulation increased from 2006 by 4,807 issues (6.3 per cent) to 81,381 issues. This is the newspaper’s all-time high circulation figure and the highest growth in one single year this decade. There was satisfactory growth both in the number of subscribers and in distributor sales. The launching of the lifestyle supplement D2 has been satisfactory both as regards circulation and advertisements. Distributor sales have increased considerably on Fridays since D2 was launched in October 2007. Distributor sales of DN lørdag (DN Saturday) also grew substantially during the fourth quarter. As regards advertisements, Situations vacant and supplements/inputs have seen the highest growth. Turnover increased during the quarter by 18% to MNOK 164.2 (MNOK 138.8). For the year as a whole, DN’s operating result was MNOK 82.9 against MNOK 83.4 in 2006. Turnover in 2007 amounted to MNOK 581.6 against MNOK 508.1 in 2006 (+ 14 %).

DN Nye Medier increased its operating profit for the quarter by to MNOK 2.2 (MNOK 1.2). Turnover increased by 17 % to MNOK 14.3 (MNOK 12.2). There was a monthly traffic growth per unique user of 24%, reaching 73,571. A number of new interactive services were launched in the quarter. on 25 February 2008, covering internet-based news. In 2007, DN Nye Medier returned an operating profit of MNOK 2.9 against MNOK 3.6 in 2006. Turnover for the year increased by 17 % to MNOK 46.0 (MNOK 39.5).

TradeWinds returned an operating loss of MNOK 1.3 for the quarter compared to a profit of MNOK 0.7 in 2006. The deficit is due to a major stepping up of various internet-based activities as well as market and editorial activities. Turnover increased by 25% for the quarter, to MNOK 28.0 (MNOK 22.4). Circulation rose to an all-time high at 8,390 at year-end. The US, Singapore and the UK saw the highest growth in turnover for the year. The quarter’s shipping conferences in Istanbul, Mumbai, Athens and Copenhagen experienced good growth and were the main reason for the growth in turnover. For the year as a whole, TradeWinds obtained a profit of MNOK 6.7 against MNOK 4.7 last year. Turnover increased by 21 % for the year, to MNOK 92.1 (MNOK 76.2). Exchange rate changes due to the weakened USD/strong NOK had a negative impact on TradeWinds throughout the year.

Upstream returned an operating loss of MNOK 1.3 against a loss of MNOK 0.4 in 2006. Turnover grew by 14 % to MNOK 18.3 (MNOK 16.0). The decline in the profit is due to a number of new market and editorial activities. Circulation reached an all-time high at 6,919. The US, Singapore and the UK saw the highest growth. For the year as a whole, Upstream returned an operating profit of MNOK 7.0 against MNOK 2.0 in 2006. Circulation increased by 20 % to MNOK 75.8 (MNOK 63.1). Exchange rate changes due to a weakened USD / strong NOK had a negative impact on Upstream throughout the year.

Intrafish Media returned an operating loss of MNOK 1.8 for the quarter against a loss of MNOK 0.9 in 2006. Turnover grew by 14 % to MNOK 15.2. Intrafish bought the seafood Highway Publications from Informa Group in London on 14th December. An agreement was signed on 15th December for integration in terms of ownership between Fiskaren as and Fiskeribladet. All in all, this is expected to double the turnover for Intrafish in 2008. This means that Intrafish will be the owner of undoubtedly the leading seafood publications in the world both on the internet and in print. For the year, there was a deficit of MNOK 1.4 against a deficit of MNOK 1.9 in 2006. Turnover increased by 7% to MNOK 53.6 (MNOK 50.0).

Nautisk Forlag returned a deficit of MNOK 1.9 for the quarter against a deficit of MNOK 0.1 last year. Turnover dropped 30 % to MNOK 16.3 (MNOK 23.1). The reduced turnover was particularly due to far fewer new charts having been during the period in question, but also the cessation of two major client accounts had an effect. For the year as a whole, the operating result increased by 8 % to MNOK 6.0 (MNOK 5.5). Turnover grew by 11 % to MNOK 100.9. Nautisk Forlag thus became the second NHST company to pass MNOK 100 in turnover (after DN).

TDN returned an operating profit for the quarter of MNOK 0.5 against MNOK 0.1 last year. Turnover grew by 15 % to MNOK 3.4 (MNOK 2.9). The operating result for the year was MNOK 3.1 against MNOK 2.1 in 2006. Turnover grew by 14 % to MNOK 13.1 (MNOK 11.6).

Europower returned a loss of MNOK 2.6 for the quarter against a loss of MNOK 1.5 in 2006. Turnover grew by 67 % to MNOK 4.6 (MNOK 2.7). The decline is due to the completion and launching of Intstream’s new application. For the year as a whole, there was an operating loss of MNOK 3.0 against a loss of MNOK 04.3 in 2006. Turnover grew by 63 % to MNOK 17.6 (MNOK 10.8).

Other activities. These include many new activities within Web TV, searches, database developments, IT, etc. The MNOK 7.6 deficit for the quarter was MNOK 7.6 compared to a deficit in 2006 of MNOK 6.4. This includes winding-up costs related to the newspaper DagensIT, which now concentrates solely on the internet-based newspaper. Also there is the carrying to expense of major technology developments in Smartcom and the setting up of Smartcom in both Sweden and the UK. The turnover from ”other activities” increased by 112% in the quarter to MNOK 14.9 (MNOK 7.1). For the year as a whole there was a deficit of MNOK 21.4 against a deficit of MNOK 11.8 in 2006. The turnover for 2007 increased by 117% to MNOK 40.4 (MNOK 18.6).

In conclusion

The core of NHST’s strategy is to be the best on business news in Norway and world leader on publications within shipping, oil and seafood, and a leading charts business. Combinations of increasing demand, a boom, strengthened market positions, a stronger organisation, and new initiatives have made NHST grow significantly in recent years.

At the moment the macro-economic outlook is uncertain and this creates uncertainty for the coming quarters. The Situations Vacant advertisements are particularly sensitive to changing business cycles. In such a situation, the publications’ strong readership positions, NHST’s developed publications portfolio, and the Group’s diversification in the media are definitely positive factors.

13. February 2008

Board of Directors NHST Media Group