Good morning, welcome to Storebrand's second quarter 2026 results presentation. As usual, our CEO, Odd Arild Grefstad, will start by taking us through the key highlights.

He will then be followed by our CFO, Kjetil Krøkje, who will dive deeper into the numbers. After the presentation, we will open up for questions from participants in the Teams webinar.

Details on how to join the webinar are available on our investor relations website. With that, I will hand it over to you, Odd Arild.

Thank you, Stig-Øyvind, good morning, everyone. Storebrand builds on the momentum from last year and made solid progress in the second quarter.

Our insurance business performed very well during the quarter and equity market rebounded. Together, this contributed to a record-strong group result with operational earnings up 17% year-on-year.

This reflects the underlying strength and scalability of the group, and not least, the effort of my fantastic 2,500 colleagues in Storebrand. In the Norwegian retail market, we continue to strengthen our position as a growing challenger.

I am proud that we have been able to combine strong growth in insurance with profitability in a market with strong incumbents. For Storebrand, sustainability remains at the core of our strategy and product offering.

Our work on sustainability continues to receive global recognition. Time Magazine ranked recently Storebrand among the 50 most sustainable companies in the world.

We are also the only Scandinavian insurance company, once again, included in the Dow Jones Best-in-Class World Index. Another highlight this quarter was the agreement to acquire the shares in Knif Trygghet Forsikring and to establish a partnership with Knif, serving Christian organizations and the broader non-profit sector.

Cash-based earnings reached a new record in the quarter. The result of NOK 1.8 billion represent 26% growth year-on-year.

The result for the first half was NOK 3.2 billion, a 22% improvement from the same period in 2025. The operating profit grew 17%, supported by insurance and cost discipline.

Unit-linked reserves were up 19% from the second quarter last year, while asset under management increased by 10% over the same period and reached a new record level. Return on equity for the last 12 months is 16%, and our solvency and capital position remains very robust.

This gives me confidence that we will deliver on our capital distribution plans. Our buyback program shows steady progress as we have bought back shares for NOK 1 billion so far this year.

Since 2022, our ongoing buybacks have reduced the number of outstanding shares by 10%. Combined with strong earnings growth over the same period, this has led to a 77% increase in earnings per share from 2022 to 2025.

Today, we are launching a new NOK 1 billion buyback tranche for the second half of 2026. We remain committed to our long-term ambition of more than NOK 12 billion in share buybacks by the end of 2030, and this comes in addition to increasing annual dividends.

Let me now turn to our strategy. We continue to execute on our ambition to lead the way in sustainable value creation.

Our strategy is designed to grow capital-light business areas by taking three clear commercial positions. First, to be the leading provider of occupational pension in both Norway and Sweden.

Second, to be a Nordic powerhouse in asset management. Third, to be a fast-growing challenger in the Norwegian retail market for financial services.

The strategy transforms into results. Across the group, we continue to see structural growth.

Together with stronger equity market, this supported a rebound in asset under management and reserves during the quarter. In insurance, portfolio premiums continue to grow by double digits.

Lending growth is more moderate as we adapt the balance sheet to CRR3. The overall picture is one of steady execution with commercial progress, disciplined capital allocation, and a continued focus on profitable growth.

We aim to lead in the structural growing market for occupational pension. This quarter shows that we are taking important steps to strengthen this position.

Unit-linked reserves continued to grow and are now up 19% year-on-year. In Norway and Sweden, our result increased by 30% year-on-year to almost NOK 300 million.

Maintaining our position also depends on customer trust and satisfaction. This is why I'm very pleased to see the result from the latest EPSI survey for private pension.

Storebrand had the largest improvement among all providers. Another important development is that the new flexible guarantee rules have now entered into effect from 1st of July.

These rules make paid-up policies more attractive, both for customers and for Storebrand. We expect this to increase pensions for customers and improve profit-sharing for shareholders.

In asset management, the underlying development was solid in the quarter, despite lower performance fees from active funds and limited event-driven income. The cost-income ratio continues to move in the right direction.

Operating costs were down 12% from the same period last year. I'm also very pleased to see that we have created more than NOK 100 billion in returns to customers so far this year.

Turning to the Norwegian retail market, P&C insurance continues to be a key growth engine for Storebrand. We have now seen 30 quarters in a row of market share gains.

This is the result of a strong brand and distribution capabilities. We now hold more than 8% market share in retail P&C.

Retail insurance results amounted to around NOK 400 million in the quarter and have more than doubled since last year. In addition to insurance, the second leg of our capital-light growth strategy is the savings segment, where Kron is an important growth platform.

We now have more than 125,000 active savings agreements on the platform. These agreements create a steady recurring inflow of new funds.

On an annualized basis, this represents more than NOK 2.5 billion in savings volume, giving us a strong basis for further growth. Let me elaborate on the acquisition of Knif Forsikring and our strategic partnership with Knif.

Knif is a well-established P&C insurer with portfolio premiums of around NOK 800 million. The company has a strong position within non-profit organizations, which is a new and attractive customer segment for Storebrand.

The transaction adds meaningful scale to our business in insurance and strengthen our distribution and brings in a portfolio that diversifies our insurance book. Just as important, Knif brings very competent people with deep customer understandings and strong relationships.

Together, we will further develop a leading offering in this segment. With that, I give the word back to you, Stig-Øyvind.

Thank you, Odd Arild. Let's take a closer look at the numbers.

Kjetil, over to you.

Thank you, Stig-Øyvind. Let us start with the key figures for the quarter.

The quarterly result was NOK 1,799,000,000. This represents an increase of 26% compared to the same quarter last year, with earnings from operations up 17%.

The result development confirms continued momentum across the business, with double-digit result growth in all core segments. Earnings per share for the quarter were NOK 3.43, up 19% year-on-year.

The annualized cash return on equity was 20%. Trailing 12-months, the return on equity is 16%.

Let me move to the solvency position. The solvency margin ended at 200%, a decrease of 6 percentage points from 206% at the end of the first quarter.

The decline is due to increased symmetrical adjustment of the equity stress, driven by strong equity markets and reduced volatility adjustment for the interest rate curve. Strong results contributed positively.

The share buyback program for the second half of the year is not yet reflected in the reported solvency ratio. With the current level of solvency, buffers, and interest rates, the balance sheet remains very robust to financial market fluctuations.

Let's go a little deeper into the results line by line at the group level, then turn to the reporting segments. The result growth in the business continues.

Fee and administration income amounted to NOK 2,031,000,000, down 2% year-on-year, but up 1% year-to-date. The soft year-on-year development, despite strong AUM growth, reflects three factors.

First, performance fees in asset management were NOK 97 million weaker this quarter compared to 2025. Second, interest rates development and higher funding costs led to temporarily lower income in the bank.

Third, currency, namely Swedish kroner and Danish kroner, reduced the fee income with low single digits. From the third quarter, income will be affected by the transfer out of a NOK 13 billion outflow of a customer within hybrid and guaranteed pensions.

This will, all else equal, affect results negatively around NOK 20 million per quarter, mostly in the guaranteed segment. Underlying, there is a good momentum in the in-force business.

The insurance results again showed strong growth, which I will come back to. Operational costs amounted to NOK 1,801,000,000 a growth of less than 3% year-on-year.

We have ongoing work to address our cost base. So far the development is satisfactory, especially in light of the sales costs within insurance being higher than expected.

For 2026, we still expect operational costs of around NOK 7.3 billion-NOK 7.4 billion before currency and performance-related costs. This is in line with our Capital Markets Day communication.

Financial and risk results were strong this quarter at NOK 680 million. This is up from NOK 474 million, supported by higher profit sharing and solid returns in company portfolios.

The reported tax charge was NOK 355 million, an effective tax rate of around 20%. This is back within our expected range of 19%-22%, following the non-recurring currency effect that elevated the tax rate in the last quarter.

This table shows the same result split into the business lines savings, insurance, and guaranteed. Savings delivered NOK 708 million, up 12%.

Insurance improved significantly to NOK 480 million, up from NOK 289 million last year. Guaranteed delivered NOK 424 million, up 19%, and the other segment contributed NOK 187 million.

I will comment on each area in the coming slides. Let me start with savings.

Supportive equity markets and operational improvements drove 12% result growth year-on-year for the segment, driven by unit linked and asset management. The unit linked business continued to grow.

Reserves are up 19% compared to the same period last year, while premiums remained stable at just under NOK 8 billion. Operational efficiency measures are progressing well.

We report a strong result development with earnings up 30% year-on-year. Asset management showed satisfactory underlying development.

Performance fees were weak and event-driven income was limited. Operational costs were down 12% year-on-year.

This further improves the cost-income ratio for the area. Within asset management, a NOK 27 million financial income from the reevaluation of a future earnout liability was recognized.

This is a non-recurring special item. Assets under management reached a new record of NOK 1,658 billion, up 10% year-on-year.

Strong financial market contributed around NOK 100 billion in returns so far this year, partly offset by currency effects of around NOK 45 billion and modestly negative net flows. The bank had a softer quarter.

Net interest rate margin was down to 1.17%, driven by lower deposit margins and increased funding costs. While this is in line with the Capital Markets Day guidance of around 1.2%, we expect somewhat increase when the interest rate adjustments are reflected in our portfolio.

Lending grew around 7% year-on-year, with continued modest growth as we continue to adapt the balance sheet to CRR3 and optimize the return on regulatory capital. Turning to insurance, we saw strong growth and result development within retail, while corporate delivered more modest results this quarter.

This is driven by a disability related reserve strengthening in group life. The insurance portfolio premiums grew 12% year-on-year.

Retail delivered 22%, driven by solid volume growth. The market share in Norwegian retail P&C increased further to 8.1% from 7.5%.

Corporate insurance had a negative development in portfolio premiums. This was due to the outflow of a hybrid and guaranteed pensions customer with a pension-related disability insurance.

The combined ratio improved by four percentage points from the same quarter last year to 87% for the quarter. The segment result rose to NOK 480 million from NOK 289 million last year.

Retail was the main driver, with a combined ratio of 80% and a result of NOK 397 million, more than double last year. The profitability in the quarter benefited from benign weather and run-off gains, and large losses were broadly in line with expectations.

Successful sales in the tied agent channel added NOK 32 million in operational costs in the quarter, as we book all sales costs upfront and do not carry any deferred acquisition cost in the insurance segment. Corporate insurance delivered a combined ratio of 96%.

This is explained by higher-than-expected disability claims in group life, where we strengthened the reserves in the quarter. Pension-related disability and corporate P&C developed well.

We continue to monitor disability-related lines closely. In guaranteed pension, we delivered strong result supported by profit sharing.

Guaranteed delivered cash equivalent earnings before amortization of NOK 424 million, up 19% year-over-year. Net profit sharing was NOK 242 million in the quarter, and the risk result was a solid at NOK 26 million, supported by positive longevity and disability results for paid-up policies.

The buffer capital position remains strong, increasing to 8.7% of customer reserves with guarantees in Norway and 29.8% in Sweden. Guaranteed reserves now make up 34.5% of the total reserves, and it continues to decrease gradually.

With a solid buffer position and an expected return above the guaranteed rate, the outlook for profit sharing remains good. Moving on to the financial results on company capital in the other segment.

The other segment reported a result of NOK 187 million, up from NOK 147 million last year. The main drivers are the returns on company capital in the holding company and the life insurance company, less the cost of debt.

The financial result was robust at NOK 243 million, driven by strong returns in the company portfolios. The Norwegian portfolio returned 1%, and the Swedish portfolio 1.1% in the quarter.

The company portfolios in the Norwegian and Swedish life companies and the holding company amounted to NOK 30.7 billion at the end of the quarter. Shorter term, we expect the result contribution from the company portfolios minus debt to be at least on the year-to-date levels.

Costs in the segment will also be somewhat higher in Q3 due to the Knif acquisition and project-related cost. The liquidity in the holding company is at very robust levels at NOK 6.1 billion, reflecting that most of the capital upstream from the subsidiaries are now completed.

We remain on track towards our 2030 goals. We have reduced financed emissions from listed equities and corporate bonds by 52% against our 2018 baseline.

We are well on the way to our 60% target for 2030. 43% of these assets are now covered by science-based targets ahead our 2027 milestone.

Solution investments make up 20% of the portfolio. Finally, our financial ambitions from the Capital Markets Day remain firmly in place.

With a result target of NOK 7 billion and a cash return on equity of 17% by 2028. We are doing NOK 2 billion in share buybacks this year and at least NOK 1.5 billion annually from 2027-2030.

This comes in addition to growing dividends every year. With the results today, we have a strong first half and excellent momentum to deliver on these ambitions.

With that, let's open up for questions.

Yes, Kjetil, first, please use the raise hand function in the Teams webinar if you would like to ask a question. To make sure everyone gets a chance, please limit yourself to two questions at a time.

Kjetil, to the trained eye, I'm filling in for Johannes today. Could you explain to us what has happened?

There are some changes in the starting lineup this time around as Johannes just became a father for his first son very recently. We wish him the best of luck in his new role as a father.

Yes.

To add on that, Kjetil, congratulations to you as well. You also become father for a second time just a couple of days ago.

I must say it's very good to see that the IR department takes responsibility for the demographic development in Norway. That's good.

For sure. Big congratulations to you both.

Let's move on to the questions. First question is from Thomas Svendsen from SEB.

Thomas, please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. My first question on the total assets under management.

Could you say what net flow was there from Q1 to Q2? Also, I guess you have to do some adjustments because in the unit-linked assets, there were also some non-recurring items as far as I can see.

The second question on the non-life side, you write something about runoff gains there. Could you quantify that on the retail?

Yep. Okay.

On the net flow, that was relatively close to zero in the quarter. As regards with the flow within unit linked, if that was your second question, there we have two factors.

We have the association I talked about that moved out of the segment, which was, I think, roughly NOK 6 billion in the quarter. Then you have the move of all the Kron customers of roughly NOK 12 billion in the quarter going into that line.

When you look at the overall AUM, that internal change within the company, that does not count into that move, only the funds that moved out of Storebrand. On the runoff gains, there was some runoff gains in the Norwegian P&C portfolio of some tens of millions.

When you look at the totality of the insurance segment, we did some reserve strengthening in the corporate lines. The combined ratio we deliver on 87% is a good estimate of where we're at, and with the 90% year to date, that's also a good estimate of where we're at.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Thomas. Next up is Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

Farooq, please go ahead.

Hi, thank you very much. Congratulations to all of you for increasing the Storebrand family and the world population.

Congratulations for that. Just going back to insurance, an amazing result again.

It just seems that Storebrand is defying gravity as always. Just want to understand again the mix between volume growth and pricing, any kind of forward-looking statements you can give on the trends that you're seeing in the market around that.

Going back to the previous question, are you effectively saying that 87% is a fairly clean number? I just want to understand, again, relative to your less than 90% target.

I get that weather was a factor in Q1 and Q4, it just feels like you're getting there early. If you can comment on that.

Sorry, that's more than one question dressed as one question. The second question is around your early thoughts on profit sharing with the rule change.

There are many ways you can approach this. You could use all of the capital gain that you get, invest that in higher risk, or you can use some of it.

Would you also consider now growing or more actively growing paid-up pensions? Is this going to make it easier to grow that book?

Thank you.

A good start a bit with the insurance and helped by Kjetil. Then we can move on to paid-up policies afterwards.

I think Storebrand has a great brand name when it comes to P&C business, especially in the retail market, but also in the corporate market in Norway. That is a fantastic starting point.

We have the trust, and we have the distribution strength to increase, and that has led to now 30 quarters in a row with increased profit. We did increase the market share within insurance.

We see that most of the growth comes from taking new customers. Actually, more than 2/3 of the growth this quarter was volume growth, while 1/3 is on pricing.

That is, I think, the main elements within insurance. As Kjetil said, we did some reserve strengthening within the corporate side.

We might see a couple of percentage points too high combined ratio in that department this quarter, while you have some release of runoff gains in the private side. That equals each other very well out.

Again, of course, the second quarter is a good quarter when it comes to insurance. Good weather and no special large claims in insurance.

That is bringing us to a situation, I think, where you see the first half of 90% in combined ratio to be a good estimate of where we are at as we stay.

I think that the bigger picture is as well, you look the private lines are growing. The P&C within corporate is growing very rapidly, and the more long-tail business is slowing down quite a bit.

We also see the move in the insurance portfolio from being more long-tailed, more biometric, to moving into more short-tailed and more repriceable business on an ongoing basis, which is kind of the strategic journey we are on and have been on for some time.

Yep. Paid-up policies and guaranteed.

On paid-up policies, we are expecting to increase the risk somewhat in these portfolios to give better pensions for our customers and then also better profit sharing. The current guiding is NOK 300 million from the Swedish portfolio, which is not affected by this, and NOK 400 million from the Norwegian portfolio in 2028, with the rules that were before the 1st of July.

All else equal, we should expect somewhat higher profit sharing than that. It's a little bit early to quantify, and obviously also market dependent going out in time.

It's hard to be very precise on a new estimate there, Farooq. But it should at least be a higher number than the NOK 400 million.

We do have a very strong buffer capital situation. Now these new rules bring new buffer capital, so to say, into the equation, and that brings this segment more important, gives bigger opportunities going forward.

We also do risk manage this in a very granular way in different segments. I think in some segments, of course, this will give uplift also when it comes to risk-taking.

In other segments that will have a lower impact on asset allocation. It's a combination.

Lastly, I think your question on appetite. Yes, we will have more appetite for a certain sub-segment of Guaranteed.

It will make a lot of sense for a lot of customers to move their pensions to Storebrand because they can free up their buffer, or get their buffer as a part of their pension capital, either in a guaranteed solution or a non-guaranteed solution. We will definitely have more appetite for that going forward.

If I may just quickly follow up. Apologies, I think you gave some guidance on the potential Solvency II impact from this rule change.

Could you remind us of it, and could you just say would you be wanting to use all of that up in some form?

I think last quarter we said mid to high single-digit. I think the updated estimate is mid single-digit-ish of Solvency impact.

I think we have the appetite to use the Solvency, but we need to also have the appetite for potential result volatility, and doing the right risk management. I think on the Solvency side, I think it's okay, but we need to do the full holistic review of it.

I think also one part that also should be mentioned in this discussion is that we also see now better conditions when it comes to pay the policies with the investment choice, and the opportunity now to move from the guaranteed pay the policies into investment choice. Also keep the asset allocation all the way also in the payoff phase within the payout policies within investment choice is something that I think can trigger even a bigger change into unit link from this segment compared to what we have seen up to now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Farooq. Next up is Herman Zahl from Pareto.

Herman, please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you.

Good morning. Just following up, very interesting to hear that two-thirds are new customers.

In P&C, could you shed some light on your sort of cross-selling capabilities in insurance? It seems to still keep a very strong growth pace despite, I guess the highest of rate hikes now being behind us.

How does that cross selling compare to, let's say, one or two years ago? That's the first one on P&C.

Just if we assume the view that the Norwegian P&C market will stay disciplined and market very strong, would you rather sort of overshoot or undershoot on your combined ratio target below 90%? Should we rather assume that you target even higher growth?

Well, first on the cross-selling. When we do the analysis of our around 600,000 retail customers, we see that the profitability between the insurance products and the different crosses we have, this is where we have some of our most loyal and profitable customers.

We are using both our own customer base and we are using the broader Norwegian population. We still see around 25% of pension customers from the corporate schemes buying a retail product, whereas insurance is maybe the most important contributor to that.

Still a really important part of the business model to use the data and use the relationships we have through the corporates, and sell to individuals. I think on the growth versus profitability, we stick by the CMD guidance to be at around 90% and the growth double digit.

I think that is what you should expect from us. You should expect us to stay disciplined and do this to grow profitably, and we would rather slow growth than to grow unprofitable.

Okay. Thank you.

Just following up on that. Do you see your insurance appetite sensitive to the interest rate level?

From our side, this is a strategic position that is, I would say, uncorrelated to interest rates. We will have strategic appetite for this with both high and low interest rates.

Yep. Thank you.

Thank you, Herman. We have another question from Thomas Svendsen from SEB.

Thomas, please go ahead.

Yes. Just another question on the non-life side, and you talk about this elevated uncertainty of disability in the Norwegian society.

Does that mean that you think that the risk is that we could stay with a high combined ratio for a long period of time? Or is it a risk that material reserve strengthening may happen in the future?

Also, could you just give us an update about the issue of disability in the society?

Well, it's a big question, of course. We are at a very high level of disability, and that is built into our models and our estimates.

We have taken it into account. Just to give you some numbers on it, we saw, I think, an increase in disability within COVID of 10%-15%.

That has been more or less on the same level afterwards, while a lot of other countries have seen that the level of disability after the COVID period has been reduced. We have taken that into account, and reserved for such a high level of disability.

Saying that, recently, we have seen some numbers when it comes to new people going into long sick leave and into disability that seems to be a bit better compared to what we have seen before. It's early days, and this is trends, but we are somewhat more positive of the long-term trends for disability to finally start to be a bit reduced compared to what we have seen in the period after COVID.

Yeah. I think it's also new and big picture when you look at our portfolio, whereas the pension-related disability insurance, the ones that are attached to the unit-linked pensions, are delivering sound disability results, whilst the group life portfolio, where we did the reserve strengthening this quarter, has been more challenging.

Hopefully, most of that is behind us now, but there are obviously still some uncertainty with how disability will develop in society.

This is more long-tailed insurance, so we should expect somewhat higher combined ratio in this part of the corporate segment compared to the more retail-based insurance segment, of course.

Okay. Understood.

Thank you.

Thank you, Thomas. Also another question from Farooq Hanif from JPMorgan.

Farooq, please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you very much.

What can you tell us about Knif profitability? You've given us the premium level, but where does it sit?

Presumably, it is going to be on the P&C side of the corporate segment. That's one question.

The second question is, going back to your strong volume growth, I think there's an impression, or there has been an impression that you're getting there partly because of your distribution efforts and the cost that you're investing in that, but also partly because you're more cost-effective, because you're able to be at a higher combined ratio for now, willing to be which of those are [inaudible]

We lost sound, I think, Farooq, on the last.

You get muted, I think.

Yes. If you could repeat the last sentence, Farooq.

We can't hear you. Let's try again.

All right. We'll start answering the questions anyways, because I think we got most of it.

Yes.

For Knif, they had the gross premiums of NOK 792 million and a gross claims ratio of 55% last year, with a combined ratio of 88%. That's kind of the starting point, where we take this business into the books.

They delivered results of a little less than NOK 60 million after tax last year, they have trending better this year. That is kind of the top-down financials on Knif.

It increases our market share in the corporate segment with 1 percentage point, but it also adds 0.3 percentage points in the retail market. You'll see it on both sides, but more heavy on the corporate side.

A bit of a technical problem there, thank you for your question, Farooq.

Thank you.

Next up, we have a follow-up from Herman Zahl from Pareto. Herman, please go ahead.

We cannot hear Herman.

If possible, Herman, put the questions into the Teams chat. We will answer it from there.

Okay. Let's see.

What's the verdict? Yes.

Please type the questions in the Teams chat. It looks like we've come to the end.

It looks like we have covered all the questions. That wraps up today's presentation.

We look forward to seeing you again for the third quarter results presentation. That happens on October the 21st.

Thank you for joining us. I wish you all a good day.