Stock and press releases

Confirming that there is a good future left for the North Sea oil business, DnB NOR is to become the first international energy bank to establish an office in Aberdeen.

The announcement was made at a recent gathering of the Norwegian British Chamber of Commerce in Aberdeen by Trine Loe, the Head of DnB NOR's London office. Having taken up the role recently following successfully establishing DnB NOR's branch in Chile, Loe is excited about growing the bank's presence in the UK. "Aberdeen is an obvious location for us to continue the expansion of our international network. We already service a substantial client base in the city and we want to continue our close relationships with them as well as develop new relationships in the local business market. There are very close links between Norway and Scotland, which have grown stronger as the North Sea develops into a mature oil province. Most local business people in Aberdeen know that they can travel to Stavanger and Bergen faster than to London and Edinburgh."

DnB NOR is Norway's largest financial institution and has come through the credit crunch relatively unscathed with a good financial performance, strong capital ratios and an appetite to continue its international growth strategy. As a leading bank focusing on shipping, energy and seafood markets globally, it has a client profile and banking expertise which reflects the strengths of the local Aberdeen economy.

Having recruited local well known oil & gas banker Kendal Milne around three years ago, he is poised to lead the bank's growth in the Aberdeen market now that the banking business is putting the credit crunch behind it. Along with Norwegian Bente Fladmark who is already known to a large section of the Aberdeen business community, they are busily engaged in the preparations to open the new office.

Milne commented, "DnB NOR is a long term relationship bank. Having built up a good client base over the last few years in Aberdeen we are now following our clients into the local market and the new representative office will continue to provide them with the very high standards of service they have been accustomed to. There are a large number of businesses located in Scotland who fall within our areas of strategic expertise and we look forward to developing good relationships with many of them."

Contacts
DnB NOR Press Office: Thomas Midteide  +479623 2017
Aberdeen: Kendal Milne +44 207 621 6091 / +44 7970 767329
Stavanger: Bjorn Inge Vikse  +47 9085 5294

DnB NOR recorded a profit of NOK 2 851 million in the first quarter of 2011, which is about the same as in the first quarter of 2010. There were sound underlying operations and a healthy profit trend in all business areas. 

"The Group delivered a sound profit performance in the first quarter of the year, in spite of negative effects of changes in market values and non-recurring items. All of our business areas delivered better operating profits than in the first quarter of 2010, and the level of write-downs remains low", says Rune Bjerke, group chief executive.

The Group recorded a rise in income of NOK 431 million or 4.8 per cent from the first quarter
of 2010. Excluding changes in mark-to-market adjustments of liabilities and associated instruments, the increase in income was approximately NOK 1 billion.

Write-downs on loans and guarantees totalled NOK 892 million for the quarter, down NOK 55 million from the first quarter of 2010. There is a general trend towards a lower write-down level, and write-downs in the first quarter mainly related to a limited number of commitments.

Profits in the Baltic region and Poland
DnB NOR acquired all shares in the bank DnB NORD in December 2010. For the first time in a long while, the operations in the Baltic States and Poland show a small profit of NOK 26 million.

"The macroeconomic situation in the Baltic States and developments in our own operations in this region improved significantly. Write-downs on loans in the Baltic States and Poland were reduced by more than NOK 180 million from the first quarter of 2010, and we expect this positive trend to continue through 2011," says Bjerke. Write-downs for the entire DnB NORD operation declined by more than NOK 340 million.

DnB NORD is in the process of being further integrated into DnB NOR, and operations at the head office in Copenhagen are being wound up. 

Rise in lending volumes
Average lending volumes, adjusted for exchange rate movements, rose by 6.4 per cent from the year-earlier period. Lending spreads widened by 0.04 percentage points from the first quarter of 2010, while deposit spreads remained stable.

"According to our estimates, lending growth will be between 5 and 7 per cent in 2011, and the increase in lending during the first three months of the year is in line with these estimates. Due to higher levels of activity in the market, we anticipate balanced growth and a continued positive trend in all of the Group's business areas in 2011," says Bjerke.

DnB NOR will present updated financial target figures at its Capital Markets Day on 15 June 2011.

Key figures for the first quarter of 2011

Comparable figures for the first quarter of 2010 in parentheses.

Contact persons:
Trond Bentestuen, group executive vice president, Corporate Communications, tel.: +47 950 28 448
Thomas Midteide, executive vice president External Communication, tel.: + 47 962 32 017

The quarterly report, presentation and Supplementary Information for Investors and Analysts can be downloaded from dnbnor.no (http://www.dnbnor.no?LA=EN)

DnB NOR Markets, Inc., the U.S. investment banking unit of DnB NOR Bank ASA, has named Jae Kwon as Managing Director and head of its Corporate Finance Group.

"We are very excited to have Jae joining our team," says Ted Jadick, Managing Director and CEO of DnB NOR Markets, Inc. "We are highly focused on creating value for our clients by providing a full range of investment banking services, including merger and acquisition advisory services and access to the U.S. equity and debt capital markets, and are confident that Jae's extensive investment banking and maritime experience will help us to achieve this goal."

"We are very pleased that Jae will become a part of our global investment banking efforts towards the maritime, oil service and energy sectors," says Bern Blikstad, global head of the Transportation & Maritime Industries Group in DnB NOR Markets. "His background and experience will absolutely strengthen our execution capabilities and profile in the market."

Prior to joining DnB NOR Markets, Inc., Jae has spent the past seven years at UBS Investment Bank, most recently as an Executive Director in the transportation sector. He began his career at Deloitte & Touche, where he worked as a senior accountant for over four years in both the Audit and M&A Transaction Services Group.

Jae graduated cum laude from Claremont McKenna College with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Chemistry. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management.

DnB NOR Bank ASA is a global financial services group and a leading institution in serving the international maritime, oil service and energy sectors. DnB NOR Markets is the bank's investment banking arm and is Norway's largest capital markets intermediary offering a complete range of investment banking products and services. DnB NOR Markets, Inc. is a registered broker/dealer in the United States providing advisory as well as full equity and debt capital markets services to the bank's clients in the maritime, oil service and energy sectors as well as assisting other DnB NOR clients with their U.S. investment banking needs.

Contact:
Ted Jadick, Managing Director & CEO, DnB NOR Markets, Inc., +1 212-551-9801

Bern Blikstad, global head, Transportation & Maritime Industries Group,
DnB NOR Markets, +47 22 948134

Shareholders in DnB NOR ASA are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting to be held at 6.00 pm on Thursday, 28 April 2011 at DnB NOR's premises in Kirkegt. 21, Oslo, Norway.

Please find attached the Notice of Annual General Meeting in DnB NOR ASA.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements in § 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

In a meeting on Wednesday, 16 March 2011, the Board of Directors of DnB NOR ASA approved the annual accounts for 2010. The DnB NOR Group's annual report and business review for 2010 have been published on newsweb.no
 (http://www.newsweb.no/newsweb/search.do?siteLanguage=en)The reports are also available on dnbnor.no (https://www.dnbnor.no/corporate/frontpage.html)

DnB NOR achieved a profit of NOK 5 284 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, which is the highest quarterly profit figure in the history of the Group. The strong profits reflect hard work, higher income and low write-downs on loans.  

Profits for the full year 2010 came to NOK 14 062 million. Pre-tax operating profits before write-downs rose from NOK 18 717 million in 2009 to NOK 21 081 million in 2010.

"We set ourselves ambitious financial targets four years ago to achieve, among other things, pre-tax operating profits before write-downs of NOK 20 billion in 2010. Due to the turmoil in the international economy over the last few years, it has been a demanding process to reach this target. I am therefore very happy that recorded profits surpass the target," says Rune Bjerke, group chief executive.

The Group's cost programme had generated annual cost savings of more than NOK 1 600 million at year-end 2010. This more than compensates for wage and price inflation. The programme is ahead of schedule to reach the target of annual cost savings of NOK 2 billion by year-end 2012.
   
Net interest income rose by NOK 803 million or 3.5 per cent from 2009 to 2010. Lending volumes rose by 4.9 per cent from year-end 2009 to end-December 2010.

Lower write-downs
"There was a significant reduction in write-downs in 2010, benefiting both shareholders and customers. While the macroeconomic situation has improved, this also proves that our loan portfolios are of sound quality," says Bjerke.

Write-downs were reduced by 61 per cent, from NOK 7 710 million in 2009 to NOK 2 997 million in 2010. In the fourth quarter, write-downs declined by 65 per cent or NOK 988 million compared with the fourth quarter of 2009. 

Higher dividend
On the basis of the Group's sound performance, the Board of Directors has proposed a dividend of NOK 4.00 per share for 2010. The dividend for 2009 was NOK 1.75.

Improved customer satisfaction
"I am pleased that we are succeeding in two areas that are important to us. We reached our profit targets while also improving our customer satisfaction scores in 2010. This is partly due to the fact that we launched the best housing loans for young people during the year, along with low-priced index funds, which make equity investments simple and easy for everyone. In addition, customers can now reach us by phone 24 hours a day, which is important for many people," says Rune Bjerke.

Bjerke expects continued growth in the Norwegian economy in 2011, which will enable domestic households to benefit from low unemployment and strong purchasing power.

"Looking outside Norway, we expect moderate growth in the global economy, but see that the debt situation in some countries could dampen growth. We anticipate a positive trend in the Baltic region, where we now have a large, wholly-owned banking operation," says Bjerke. 

Full year 2010

Fourth quarter 2010

Comparable figures for 2009 in parentheses.

Contact persons:
Trond Bentestuen, group executive vice president, Corporate Communications, tel.: +47 950 28 448
Thomas Midteide, vice president External Communication, tel.: + 47 962 32 017

The quarterly report, presentation and Supplementary Information for Investors and Analysts can be downloaded from https://www.dnbnor.no/about-us/about-us.html?LA=EN (https://www.dnbnor.no/about-us/about-us.html?LA=EN)