Good morning, everyone. My name is Carsten Dybevig, Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs, Norske Skog.

Welcome to this webinar where we will present highlights from the second quarter. Presenting today are Geir Drangsland, Chief Executive Officer, Tord Steinset Torvund, CFO, and Even Lund, Senior Vice President Corporate Finance.

Also joining us from the corporate management team are Robert Wood, SVP Commercial, Christopher Buhl, SVP Business Development. There is now a pre-recorded presentation for this quarter available on Norske Skog's website.

This webinar is being recorded and will be made available on the website after the event. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session.

To ask question, please raise your hand using the reaction function in Teams, and we ask that all microphones remain muted. With that, I hand over to you, Geir.

Thank you, Carsten. Thank you for sharing time with us.

If you allow me, I would like to share some thoughts and reflections for you. My family has invested a lot of money in Norske Skog.

Unfortunately, our timing in spring '23 was not so good. A lot of negative events occurred immediately after we had invested in the company.

I have had the position as CEO since September '23. Entered Norske Skog at the end of the previous market cycle peak, followed by rapid increase of fiber prices, OCC and RP, the raw material source for the mills, and we're not being able to mitigate the price increases on the raw materials to customers.

Following period characterized by faltering confidence and trust in Norske Skog, further weakened by a challenging financial position due to NOK 1.5 billion increase in capex at Golbey. Landslide at Saugbrugs in 2023 negatively impacted operations and capacity in the group.

Norske Skog is now on track for a healthy return with a strengthened competitive position and improving balance sheet. This is Norske Skog Golbey.

I would like to say the flagship of Norske Skog. It's by far our most valuable asset.

We invested here in a new packaging paper machine. It's completed.

We're very proud that we made it. The project was delayed 30 months and more than NOK 1.5 billion over budget, but the machine is now producing and supplying high-quality, lightweight recycled containerboard.

However, this overspending of shareholders' money created a lack of trust to the company. A great value destruction occurred, and there's no one to blame but Norske Skog itself.

Poor planning, poor execution made this happen. I'm very happy we made it, and we're now offering high-quality products from the machine to our customers.

As a part of the portfolio, we also were shareholders in Norske Skog Boyer, which is a paper mill in Australia. It was the last remaining non-European asset held by Norske Skog, sold in 2025 at an enterprise value of NOK 100 million.

It was old machines. The steam was by coal, a shrinking market, I'm pleased to transfer the assets in Boyer to cash to pay bills in Golbey.

In April 2023, there was a landslide in our mill in Saugbrugs in Halden in Norway, damaging the building and paper machine 6. The machine hall has been repaired, and studies for the potential repair of the paper machine are ongoing as we speak.

Currently, we are supplying the customers with 200,000 tonnes of SC magazine paper from paper machine 4 and paper machine 5. I identified possibilities to transfer assets also in Saugbrugs to money.

Next to Norske Skog Saugbrugs, we have a nuclear plant. It's been established there in 1957.

The State of Norway decided to dismantle and decommission this nuclear plant and has granted a lot of money for that task. I took the initiative to have meetings with the managing director of NND, which is the company to do this job for the State of Norway, and if that could be a possibility they could use some of our buildings and land for storage.

The outcome of this was a deal with the State of Norway, and we are collecting a net amount of 720 million for sale of these assets. We're very pleased that we did the execution of this transaction.

Also, parallely, the repair has been going on after the landslide, and we also took an initiative towards the insurance company to make a final settlement to giving some account, but being a cash of 560 and to use that cash and to have options to use that cash the best way we feel that should be used instead of to full repair of the machine and the buildings. Then we collected the cash amount from the insurance company, which also a period where there were a lot of payouts to pay for the investment in Golbey was very useful for us.

We're very pleased with that transaction. I also identified quite rapid as a CEO that there was a lack of coordination, lack of preparations for procurement procedures.

That has been established, where we now have a very focused preparation stage in the autumn where all procurement people are forced to produce to me the targets for coming year on their suppliers. Then we also have a debrief in February, and they inform us how did it go.

This is an example for how we had the outcome of the process autumn '25 to prepare for procurement '26. You here see some of the savings we have achieved: it's 25 million in Bruck, it's 80 million in Golbey, it's 70 million in Saugbrugs, and 125 million in Skogn, total of 300 million.

Almost half of the savings located to Saugbrugs and Skogn is that we have used the opportunity to renegotiate the fiber sourcing of virgin fiber to Saugbrugs and Skogn with a saving of 100 million NOK. Very happy about that.

We have improved our competitiveness. Also took an initiative to look over the mills, the organization, and had the hypothesis that there should be possibilities to offer same amount of paper and packaging with less people.

It's been a very large process involving a lot of people from the mills, but also a good process. Of course, the first stage is everybody's defending themselves, but the outcome of the process, you see here where we have demand in Skogn from 380 to 360, we have demand in Bruck from 480 to 390—that's 90 people less, that's a huge improvement of the mediate cash cost for that mill—and in Golbey, even if we now produce more than we did 2 years ago, we have reduced from 390 to 360, and in Saugbrugs, it's from 370 to 310.

We see it now every month when we're monitoring the salaries. It's going down compared to last year.

I'm very glad we have done this project. It's sum of 200 people less now, but we still produce the same amount with the same quality.

We should also always be humble doing these processes because there could be an ex-colleague now. For instance, worked for 29 years old, he's not a colleague anymore, and he could wonder, "Can I afford to buy a Christmas present for my 3-year-old daughter this year?

I'm unemployed." Life is full of contrasts, and we should be humble when we do this and also because I need my troops to be happy and I need my troops to be motivated.

Also to get through this challenging territory where people thinking, "Will Norske Skog manage to come through this with the weight of the debt, all the challenges, reduced prices on the products we're offering to customers?" It's been very important for us to have a clear and honest communication with all stakeholders, and above all towards the lenders, and I have great colleagues, Even and Tord, who has been very good at informing and being able to make us come through this challenging period together with stakeholders.

We also have challenged the supplier portfolio by stretching the payment terms. We have done achievements there.

We've had a solution where we actually gave two suppliers monopoly for freight solution, both inbound with raw materials and outbound with the finished goods to customers. It was not a good idea, so that has been closed and we established our own internal logistic solution where we source where it's most competitive.

With a full ramp-up of PM1, we do 850,000 tonnes of newsprint and containerboard to customers, and we do 900,000 tonnes of RP and OCC raw material inbound freight to cover the demand. It's 400 trucks per day, this adjustment of terms makes us able to save about 160 million NOK a year, which is big saving for us.

Also, on the publication paper part of Norske Skog, we do LWC paper, we do SC and newsprint supplier. We have improved our market share substantially, and I'm really proud of my colleagues.

I think the sales offices and the sales team is really a strong strength of Norske Skog. I can show you on the next proof of that.

We see development here on the market share for our fractions. In '23, we had 22.2% of the market on newsprint.

It's now 24.2%. On the SC, it was 7% and it's now 12.9%.

In '23 for LWC, it was 4.6%, now increased to 8.7%. There has been some closures, but we have beaten competitors, we have stolen customers.

We are very good at selling paper in Norske Skog. This is the proof.

I'm also proud of a spin of my sales team. Here, I invited them to a sales meeting in Marbella last year.

We do this every year, have one big happening where we can gain positive energy from each other and do some fun together. These are great people.

It's very, very strong team. Also, in France there are grants from the State of France where we now can prove that the PM1 where we know have transferred from newsprint to offer containerboard, we do a huge reduction of energy consumption per tonne.

Then in 2 2.7, we will collect 100 million NOK cash in certificates. I think it's 350 now this November/December, and second part will come in 2028 when the achievements of energy savings is approved.

To summarize some of the actions that's been taken place in Norske Skog during the last years: the insurance settlement, EBITDA impact of 540, cash impact 560 million NOK, it's done; sale of Boyer, no EBITDA impact, but cash impact the 180 million, it's done; procurement procedures, impact on the EBITDA during this year, not at instantly, but during the year, and also cash impact on the savings 300 million, it's done; payment terms stretched we keep the money longer in the company, reduces interest and net debt, it's done; transport system changed in Golbey, savings 160 million and cash impact same, it's done; reduced number of FTEs in the organization is still ongoing, but most of the reductions has been installed, it's ongoing; repayment schedules, Even is doing an excellent job, it's done; Skogn financing, we have a temporary loan from DNB, 400 million NOK, that will be reinstalled when we collect 780 million cash from the State of Norway for sale of assets in Saugbrugs, it's done; energy certificates, it's ongoing, but we will make it, we see that; and the NND transaction has an EBITDA impact of 650 million NOK and the cash impact is 720, that's done, even if the cash has not been collected. Still to collect of these sums of EBITDA impact and cash is the cash for energy certificates and NND is 1.5 billion to be collected.

The NND transaction and money from the State of Norway will be collected probably in June this year. Also, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts for risk factors.

If some of you think that it's the same to have money in the bank and to have money in Norske Skog, you're wrong. There are risk factors here you should be aware of.

It's very high fluctuation on energy supply and prices, and that has huge impact on our business. Also, the fiber sourcing is risk.

I remind you that the price for virgin fiber in Norway increased with 150% during 3 years. Very, very pleased that is now flipped over to decrease, and we have these savings for Skogn and Saugbrugs for approximately 150 million this year.

Also, we are in a territory for declining demand for publication paper grades, my solution is to put pressure on the sales team to sell more, steal customers, and be last man standing and be the preferred supplier in that territory, and we are doing a great job to fill the machines still with orders, profitable orders. Also, political risk: EU Emissions Trading System and the tariffs—what Trump has been doing latest year—and also uncertain geopolitical situation, the flow of oil supply has impacts.

That's a sunny side for us because we are not fossil fuel for drying the paper and run the machines. That's kind of more a lot of competitors of Norske Skog who has been hit by the increased prices of energy.

We are not influenced by that so much. Good hedging there, and for dry paper, we do biomass steam, which is not correlated so much to oil.

Also, perhaps I would like to just be aware of that I understand my own role as a main shareholder. My family holds 27% of the shares, and I'm the CEO.

That makes me have ultimate influence on the company, and I'm also ultimately humble to that. Maybe I'm not good enough.

I'm a very self-critical person. Trust is not a thing you take.

Trust is something you are being given based on your behavior and performance. If you don't trust me, you should not have shares in Norske Skog.

You deserve to have your money invested in a company where you trust the boss. All these actions you've been introduced to, it's not happened by itself.

It's because I have very good colleagues who made it happen. They identified the possibilities and did the job.

It has been a big challenge to fix Norske Skog, but we made it. That's fine.

Lights were red, now turned to green. For the future, if we don't succeed, I'm the one to be blamed, and if we succeed, it's because I have good colleagues.

Tord and Even, leave it to you.

Thank you, Geir. Then we'll move to the highlights for the quarter.

We had record deliveries and production of recycled containerboard in this quarter as Golbey PM1 is continuing the ramp-up in line with plan. The profitability of the containerboard segment has also improved as we have a better market mix compared to previously, with a higher share of European deliveries.

EBITDA came in at 451 million and pre-tax profit of 236 million NOK. The improvement from previous quarters both from the one-off gain related to the NND deal Geir mentioned earlier in this presentation, the agreement with Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning company at Saugbrugs, but also improved operational profitability on both publication paper and packaging paper.

The net debt stood at 4.5 billion at quarter end, but that has decreased significantly during April as we have received the annual CO2 compensation in Norway for Skogn and Saugbrugs, and in May, we expect to receive the annual CO2 compensation in Golbey. Then coming to June, we of course expect the proceeds from the NND deal at Saugbrugs, totaling 770 million NOK.

We have several initiatives to improve profitability across our mills, and as Geir has mentioned, we have now started to really see the benefit of these cost-saving initiatives across all mills. These are the key figures.

Deliveries and production of publication paper is in line with prior quarters, while containerboard, as expected, is continuing to increase due to the ramp-up at Golbey. Golbey PM1 produced and sold 56,000 tonnes of recycled containerboard in the quarter, meaning that now Golbey has already surpassed Bruck in terms of containerboard volumes.

Operating revenue is slightly down from Q4, in part due to mix effects, with a higher share of containerboard compared to the higher-priced publication paper, in addition to some currency effects, as Norwegian krone has strengthened against all other major currencies. Other operating income is up, mainly due to the one-off effect of 320 million from the NND deal at Saugbrugs, in addition to some R&D-related grants at Golbey.

EBITDA of 451 million, which is an improvement from prior quarters, as you can see, both also when excluding the effects from this NND deal. Moving to financial position, equity ratio increased to 42% and interest coverage rate stands at 2.8 times.

The cash balance decreased to 653 million at end Q1, but we stress that end of Q1 is the point in time of the year we have the most CO2-related receivables in our balance sheet, and so far in April, we have already received 370 million in CO2 compensation in Norway. We expect to receive €10 million CO2 compensation in France in May, and then, of course, it's 770 million in June.

All this means that net debt will decrease significantly coming to Q2 2026 and cash increase. Looking at segments, for publication paper, deliveries are seasonally a bit lower than in Q4 and in line with Q1 last year.

Average prices for segments are slightly down on newsprint and flat on SC and LWC magazine paper. Cost of materials improved, mainly due to lower pulpwood prices in Norway, and we expect the price decrease to continue the rest of 2026.

As mentioned, in sum, this resulted in an EBITDA increase for the segment in this quarter, also when excluding one-off effects. On packaging paper, Bruck PM3 delivered EBITDA of 15 million NOK in the quarter, which is an increase from negative 2 million NOK in the prior quarter.

This is despite lower containerboard prices. Fixed cost improvements and the good operations of the energy assets at the mill are the main contributing factors.

Price increases announced for March and April are gradually being implemented in all markets during Q2 2026. The remaining capex at Golbey is about €7 million, and the remaining energy certificates, as mentioned by Geir, to be received in 2026 and 2028 is about €75 million when applying the current market price for these certificates.

The minimum value to be received due to a floor price of these certificates are unchanged from previous reporting, meaning about half of the current market price. On Golbey, we have good progress on the containerboard ramp-up, as you see from production and sales figures on this slide, and we still expect to reach full utilization in about 1 year from now, meaning the first half of 2027.

I now hand over the word to Senior Vice President Corporate Finance Even Lund for an update on other projects we have in the company and also the markets.

Thank you, Tord. Looking at the operating footprint of Norske Skog, we have reduced our CO2 footprint significantly, and we continue to recycle waste into valuable end products, including paper and energy.

Developments at Saugbrugs in the quarter, as already mentioned, we signed a property sale and transfer of a transformer station at the Saugbrugs mill during the quarter, and further, we entered into a letter of intent with Green Mountain, Norway's most experienced and largest developer and operator of cloud service data centers, to explore the possibility of jointly developing a data center at Saugbrugs. In parallel, we continue to study the rebuild of PM6 to produce both SC magazine paper and TMP-based kraftliner.

We will give an update on both of these projects during the second quarter. As previously announced, we have a book paper project ongoing at Skogn.

The final machinery is being installed this week, following which we will start trial production and qualify with customers during the remainder of the second quarter and starting commercial deliveries early during Q3, entering then the book paper market with one of the three paper machines at Skogn holding a capacity of about 140,000 tonnes. At Golbey, we are now exploring a project to increase our biogas capacity from around 16 gigawatt hours per year to 70 to 90 gigawatt hours per year, increasing biogas revenues from around €2 million per year to about €10 million per year with limited additional production cost.

We will continue to update on this project as it progresses. Similarly, at Bruck, we are now exploring a battery energy storage solution project.

This would contribute with around €2 to €3 million of profit per year by installing a 20-megawatt battery park on the mill site. We will continue to update on this project as it progresses through 2026 and 2027.

Going to the markets, publication paper markets continue to decline, but as already mentioned by Geir, we increase our market share across all grades, being able to deliver high-quality paper to our customers, receiving excellent feedback. In addition, we continue to focus on cost, also as mentioned by Geir, competitively positioning our mills in the bottom quartile of the cash cost curve.

Saugbrugs PM4 and PM5 is unfortunately situated on the far right of the uncoated mechanical cash cost curve. However, as we continue to study the PM6 potential rebuild, we see that that machine will be significantly more competitive in this market.

Moving to the packaging paper markets, growth continues at around GDP levels, 1% to 2% expected in the near term, and although utilization remains low on market statistics, we see that several of our competitors are taking downtime, either maintenance or market-related, thus resulting in a tighter market than what is apparent from the market statistics. On the right-hand side, you see the cash cost curve for recycled containerboard casing materials in Western Europe.

Golbey PM1 is situated in the first quartile, and Bruck PM3, although here situated on the right-hand side, we see that if we include revenues from the gate fees, which are related to our waste-to-energy boiler at the site, it would be positioned immediately next to Golbey PM1. Thus, we continue to view both of our packaging paper machines as very competitive assets.

Raw materials, this has already been alluded to, but we continue to see volatile energy prices, both on electricity and natural gas. We have hedged close to all of our consumption in '26 and a large share of our consumption in 2027, and continue also to benefit from volatile energy markets through the flexibility systems.

Recycled fiber prices have stabilized somewhat lately, but we do see a slight upward pressure on OCC and RCP going forward. Opposite direction for spruce pulpwood: we have continued to see a decline from the fourth quarter of '25 and into the first quarter of '26 and expect this trend to continue going forward.

On paper prices, we saw a slight uptick in both newsprint and LWC magazine paper in April and expect this to persist through the second quarter, somewhat improving profitability for our publication paper grades. We still believe that further price increases are required to mitigate recent cost increases both on transportation, energy, and chemicals.

Looking at the recycled containerboard index for Germany, we have seen significant upticks both in March and in April. We expect this to result in higher prices being implemented through the second quarter across most countries in Western Europe and will benefit from this on both of our packaging paper machines.

Briefly on the outlook, we continue to increase market share in an uncertain operating environment and challenging markets. We have, as already mentioned, several ongoing initiatives to reduce our production cost and working capital to maintain competitiveness.

Several profitable projects, as mentioned within this presentation, are being explored across all our mills to diversify and increase our revenues. We have a significant emphasis on the ramp-up of Golbey PM1, and as mentioned by Tord, expect full utilization in about 12 months' time.

Final decision on the future direction for Saugbrugs is being planned for the second quarter of 2026 when we have completed both studies relating to the rebuild and the studies relating to a potential data center. With that, I think we can open up for Q&A.

There is nobody yet asking for questions. You are free to raise questions.

Raise your hand. Yes, we have Henrik.

You're welcome to raise your hand and to raise a question.

You should be able to unmute your microphone now, Henrik.

Hello? Any further questions?

Espen Landmark? If you allow your mic.

You can raise your question.

You should be able to unmute now, Espen. Seem to be having some technical issues with our webinar.

Try again, Espen. If anyone internal could give us a shout?

It seems like we are not connecting the sound.

All right. It seems like we have to conclude the seminar.

We apologize for the technical issues. Hopefully any questions could be addressed to Tord or myself by email or phone during today, and we will try to answer any questions that might arise.

Apologies for these issues.

Okay. Thank you for joining today's webinar, and have a pleasant day.