Norwegian jumps after strong quarterly numbers – E24

Norwegian Air reported quarterly numbers before the stock market opened on Friday. Auto shop declines sharply after $1 billion in sales from department store owners.

There have been numbers in green since the beginning of the last trading day of the week.

The main index rose 0.91 percent at around 10.10 am.

On Thursday, Burson closed cautiously lower by 0.15 percent.

North Sea oil (the burned spot) was trading at about $82.4 per barrel, a decrease of 0.45 percent since midnight.

Here's how it goes with some of the most widely traded stocks:

• The rate fell 2.9 percent.
• Norwegian jumps 13.45 percent.
• Equinor rises 1.55 percent
• Front Line rose 3.7 percent.
• Autostore stock fell 12.32 percent.

Pawn and sorting company Tomra had its best trading day ever on Thursday, posting a stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter performance.

Tomra's stock rose a whopping 30.92 percent on Thursday. The company's shares fell 1.8 percent on Friday.

Stronger than Norwegian

The airline earned NOK 208 million before tax in a typically tough quarter, up from negative NOK 80 million at the same time last year, latest quarterly figures showed.

Revenue reached NOK 5.92 billion, up from NOK 4.97 billion.

Norwegian will ask for permission to distribute NOK 580 million (NOK 0.6 per share) in new dividends for 2023. With the previous year's proposed dividend, the total dividend could reach NOK 820 million.

For the full year 2023, the operating result ended at a record level of NOK 2.23 billion.

– I am happy to say that in 2023 Norwegian achieved the company's highest operating profit ever, says Norwegian CEO Geir Carlsen in a statement.

Regarding future expectations, Norwegian stated that it expects profits to increase further.

The company expects to achieve operating results of between 2.5 and 3.2 billion Norwegian kroner this year, an increase of between 12 and 44 percent over last year.

Norwegian rises 13.45 percent.

Major shareholders have sold Autostore and Sats

Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) sold all of its stake in Autostore, reducing its stake to about 16 percent. THL announced the sale of 177 million shares of Autostore stock on Thursday evening.

Friday morning, the sale was completed, according to Ahad Stock exchange announcement.

The shares were sold for NOK 17.85 each, giving a total of NOK 3.16 billion. The price gives a discount of eight percent from the closing price on Thursday.

After the sale, the major shareholder will be left with an ownership stake of approximately 28 percent.

Autostore's share was down 12.32 percent at the time of writing.

TryghedsGruppen, Altor and HFN, the main owners of Sats, sold 20.6 million shares, at a value of NOK 17 per share. Sats stated this in one Stock exchange announcement Friday.

This corresponds to shares worth approximately NOK 350 million.

Sats shares fell 2.9 percent.

Rush of results

Many companies filed quarterly numbers in the morning hours before the stock market opened.

• Olaf Thon Indomselskap It had a pre-tax result of minus NOK 1.82 billion in the fourth quarter, down from minus NOK 799 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The stock rose 0.76 percent.
• Oil Services Company Oudvil technology It reported pre-tax profits of NOK 139 million in the fourth quarter, up from NOK 109 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. The stock rose 2.2 percent.
• Consulting company Buffett It generated pre-tax profits of NOK 112.4 million, down from NOK 117 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year. The stock rose 5.0 percent.
• Shipping company Claveness mix vectors The bank ended with a pre-tax profit of $25.9 million, up from $15.3 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year. The stock rose 4.74 percent.