Welcome everyone to Aker's presentation of the fourth quarter results and preliminary annual results for 2017. My name is Per Kristian Reppe , I'm Head of Investor Relations at Aker. We'll start today's presentation with Aker's President and CEO, Øyvind Eriksen, who will go through the main highlights of the quarter and the developments of the industrial holdings portfolio. Aker's Chief Financial Officer, Frank Reite, will go through the financial investments portfolio and the financial statements for the fourth quarter. We'll open up for Q&A, both from the audience here at Fornebu as well as from webcast. With that, I leave the floor to Øyvind.
Good morning, and welcome to this presentation of Aker ASA's fourth quarter 2017 results. Today, we're reporting yet another strong quarter, marking the end of 2017, a year with solid underlying performance in all our portfolio companies. Let's start with some of the headlines in the fourth quarter. Net asset value was up 20.4% to NOK 41.8 billion or NOK 562 per share. Aker's share price rose 23.2%. Cash and liquid fund investments ended at NOK 1.7 billion, while Aker's liquidity reserve stood at NOK 4 billion. We're proposing a cash dividend of NOK 18 per share for the fiscal year 2017. In the fourth quarter, Aker and our portfolio companies announced and closed several transactions. Aker BP completed a $2 billion acquisition of Hess Norge, financed partly by a NOK 4.1 billion equity issue, of which Aker invested NOK 1.6 billion.
Aker announced its participation in the restructuring of Norske Skog together with Oceanwood. Akastor announced a memorandum of understanding with Mitsui whereby Akastor will sell 50% of its ownership in AKOFS Offshore to Mitsui, providing Akastor with net cash proceeds of $142 million. Ocean Yield completed the acquisition of three suezmax tankers on 10-year contracts to Nordic American Tankers for $130 million. Subsequent to the quarter, Aker completed a new NOK 1.5 billion unsecured bond issue at historically low margin. Aker announced the acquisition of Hess Ghana, a 50/50 joint venture with our main shareholder, TRG. Aker BP announced a new dividend policy, increasing the 2018 cash dividend to $450 million, with an ambition to increase the level by $100 million per year to $750 million in 2021. Ocean Yield announced two investments.
One in four crude tankers on 15 years charter for $296 million and another in two dry bulk vessels on 12-year charter for $36 million. Needless to say, we are still quite busy here at Aker. In the fourth quarter, NOK 7.1 billion was added to our net asset value. A majority of the contribution came from Aker BP, representing NOK 6.8 billion of the value increase. Aker Solutions added NOK 383 million and Kværner NOK 232 million, while Akastor and Ocean Yield saw a value decline of NOK 101 million and NOK 45 million respectively. The results for the full year to a large extent mirror the development in the fourth quarter. Aker's net asset value rose NOK 7.4 billion in 2017 or 21.7%. In addition, we distributed last year NOK 1.2 billion in cash dividend to our shareholders.
Aker's share price rose 23.2% in the quarter compared to the Oslo Stock Exchange benchmark index that rose by 4%. For 2017, we managed to deliver a total return of 30.7% versus the benchmark index of 19.1%. As per the end of the quarter, Aker held NOK 50.4 billion in gross assets and total liabilities stood at NOK 8.6 billion. The value-adjusted equity ratio was 83%, on par with prior quarter. Next, our portfolio composition. In the fourth quarter, we increased our exposure in Aker BP with a NOK 1.6 billion investment. Aker BP accounted for 58% of our values as per the end of 2017. There were no other major changes to our portfolio. In terms of gross asset to value distribution, oil services accounted for 15% of our portfolio, maritime assets 14%, and seafood and marine biotech 5%. Aker's investment capacity and liquidity position remained strong.
At the end of the fourth quarter, Aker's cash and liquid fund investments amounted to NOK 1.7 billion. That's slightly up from the prior quarter. In addition, we had NOK 2.3 billion in undrawn credit facilities, bringing our liquidity reserves to NOK 4 billion. Subsequent to the fourth quarter, we completed a new NOK 1.5 billion unsecured bond issue, of which NOK 1.3 billion will be used to repay one of our outstanding bond loans that mature in June this year. In the fourth quarter, we received NOK 408 million in dividends from our portfolio companies. That bring the total upstream cash generated in 2017 to NOK 1.6 billion. In January, Aker BP announced a new dividend policy, increasing the dividend level to $450 million in 2018 compared to $250 million paid in 2017.
All else equal, that will increase Aker's annual upstream cash by $80 million, or approximately NOK 600 million. The composition of the resilient upstream cash and a robust balance sheet enable Aker to both employ capital and pay an attractive cash dividend annually to our shareholders. Our dividend policy is to pay between 2% and 4% of net asset value in cash dividend annually. For the fiscal year 2017, the proposal is to pay a cash dividend of NOK 18 per share, which is at the higher end of the policy. This equates to a direct yield of 4.5% based on Aker's closing share price as per the end of 2017. Turning now to each of our industrial holdings, starting with Aker BP. Aker BP delivered a strong fourth quarter.
The company completed the $2 billion acquisition of Hess Norway, and subsequently divested 10% in the Valhall and Hod fields to Pandion Energy, produced 135,600 bbl a day and sanctioned three new projects, the Valhall Flank West, Ærfugl, and Skogul, contributing to further organic growth in the Aker BP portfolio. Our ownership agenda in Aker BP remains the same. Focus is to continue growing the company both organically and structurally. Aker BP should be able to double its production by 2023 without any new acquisition or discovery. In addition, Aker BP has put in place an attractive dividend policy, which combined with the growth outlook, makes Aker BP a unique investment proposition in the E&P sector. Improving operations remain a cornerstone in Aker's ownership agenda for Aker BP.
The company is successfully working on new collaboration models with its suppliers, reducing costs significantly, as illustrated by the three recent project sanctions, where CapEx from concept selection to PDO was increased by 20%. In addition, digitalization is key to lowering cost even more. Our recently established digitalization venture, Cognite, is supporting Aker BP in this effort to improve efficiency and productivity in the day-to-day operations. Cognite has already come a long way, and all sensor data from Aker BP's five operated fields offshore are now available in real- time from the platform established by Cognite. As you understand, it's exciting times, not only for Aker BP, but also for Aker as the main shareholder in both Aker BP and in Cognite. Moving on to Aker Solutions. Aker Solutions delivered strong operational performance in the fourth quarter, reporting an adjusted EBITDA of NOK 482 million.
The company continues to focus on its improvement program, and the target to deliver 30% cost efficiency versus the 2015 cost level was reached in the fourth quarter. Succeeding with this transformation has been key to enhance competitiveness. I'm therefore pleased to see that the program has already delivered tangible results, with Aker Solutions reporting an order intake of NOK 13.4 billion in the fourth quarter last year, the highest order intake since 2014. More work is yet to be done, and Aker Solutions is now embarking upon stage 2 of the improvement program, increasing the cost efficiency target another 5% annually to 50% by 2021. Aker Solutions' order backlog ended at NOK 34.6 billion in the quarter, and the company has solid financial position, further strengthened by the NOK 1.5 billion bond issue now in January. Next, Akastor.
In the fourth quarter, Akastor announced a MOU with Mitsui to expand the current partnership, whereby Mitsui will acquire 50% of the shares in AKOFS Offshore. As part of the transaction, Akastor will receive $142 million in net cash proceeds. Akastor's most significant asset, MHWirth, continues to develop well despite a very challenging rig market. Book-to-bill was around 150%, supported by the contract for delivery of a drilling package to the White Rose extension project. MH had in the fourth quarter last year an EBITDA margin of 11.2%, which is actually quite impressive taking into account the market realities. Kværner continues to deliver strong execution, which also is reflected in the company's financial results. In the fourth quarter, Kværner reported an EBITDA of NOK 227 million, bringing the EBITDA for the full year to close to NOK 800 million and a margin in excess of 12%.
That's impressive considering that the revenue base is down roughly 50% since 2014. Kværner's order backlog ended the year at NOK 8.1 billion, slightly down from the prior quarter. An important subsequent event was the contract award for the delivery of the topside modules and integration of the Johan Castberg FPSO, adding another NOK 3.8 billion to Kværner's backlog. The results reported and the award of the Johan Castberg contract show that the company has used the downturn to take the necessary steps to become competitive and to win new contracts. Next, Ocean Yield. Ocean Yield continues to deliver solid results from growing upstream cash to Aker. In the quarter, the company reported an adjusted net profit of $34 million and raised the dividend level by $0.001. In the quarter, Ocean Yield continued to invest more capital in new projects.
This time with a $130 million investment in three crude tankers on 10-year charters. Subsequent to the quarter, Ocean Yield announced another two transactions, one in four crude tankers and another in two dry bulk vessels on long-term charters for a total consideration of $333 million. All three transactions will contribute to further diversification of the Ocean Yield portfolio. Including the new transactions, Ocean Yield's EBITDA backlog was $3.5 billion by the end of last quarter. Aker's ownership agenda in Ocean Yield is unchanged. A key priority in 2018 will be to reach a favorable outcome of the FPSO Dhirubhai-1, as the current contract expires in September this year. Aker BioMarine had an active year in 2017. The company ordered a new krill harvesting vessel and announced and completed several transactions. The results, however, did not meet our expectations.
For the full year 2017, Aker BioMarine reported an EBITDA of $17 million. A key priority in 2018 will be to increase profitability through scale and cost efficiency, as well as through extracting synergies from the recent transactions. Aker continues to have a positive view on the long-term outlook for Aker BioMarine and the omega-3 market segment. That's why Aker has continued to support the company financially in the current growth phase. Let me finish by saying a few words about our new investment in Ghana. Today, Aker Energy, a 50/50 joint venture between Aker and our main shareholder, TRG, announced that we have entered into an agreement with Hess to acquire Hess Ghana, which holds a 50% interest in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block. The total consideration for Hess Ghana is $100 million, of which $75 million will be paid upon approval of the PDO.
This block is huge, deep, and prosperous. The acreage is more than 4x Johan Sverdrup, or 2,010 sq km in total. The water depth is between 2,000 and 2,500 m, which means that we can leverage on Aker Solutions' extensive deepwater capabilities and technologies. Already in the first phase of this development, we are targeting at producing 400 million barrels of oil. The size of the resources in the Deepwater Tano Three Points block can be compared with the size of Johan Castberg here in Norway. We expect that the total investments in our new block in Ghana will be less than the total investments or the cost per barrel at Johan Castberg. TRG has been involved in Ghana for several years and holds an interest in the neighbor block.
We are pleased and grateful by the fact that TRG has invited Aker into this business opportunity to acquire Hess Ghana. Together, we will now explore the opportunity of building a significant E&P operation in Ghana, including a possible area solution for the two blocks. Aker Energy will be set up with a single country focus, just as we have done so successfully with Aker BP here in Norway. The next main milestone will be submission of a PDO, expected to be ready for submission in the third quarter this year. Thereafter, it's likely that Aker Energy will invite one or more industrial or financial partners into the project. That concludes my presentation this morning. To sum up, a solid performance by Aker last year. Overall, good development in all our portfolio companies. NOK 18 per share in cash dividend will be paid for the fiscal year 2017.
Still, Aker has a strong financial position that enables us to pursue new investment opportunities like the Ghana investment we announced this morning. With that, I leave the floor to you, Frank, for more details on both the financial portfolio and the financial results.
Thank you, Øyvind, and good morning, everyone. I will spend some minutes on Aker's financial investments before I go through the fourth quarter accounts. The financial portfolio accounted for 12% of Aker's total assets or NOK 5.8 billion. Basically, at the same level as the third quarter 2017. The main components are cash, listed investments, and interest-bearing receivables. Let's look into the details of the financial investment portfolio. Starting with cash and liquid fund investments. Combined, the two represented 3% of Aker's gross asset value or NOK 1.7 billion. Of that, NOK 1.2 billion is cash on par with the previous quarter. The main cash inflow was the NOK 408 million in dividends from Aker BP, Ocean Yield, Fornebuporten, and American Shipping Company. Aker raised new debt of NOK 1.6 billion to its participation in the Aker BP equity issue.
Other major cash outflows in the quarter were a loan issued to Aker BioMarine of NOK 106 million, investments with NOK 75 million, as well as NOK 127 million in operating expenses and net interest paid. The year-to-date changes to our cash balance shows a decline of NOK 3.2 billion. The main explanation to this are repayments of debt with NOK 1.6 billion, dividend paid to our shareholders of NOK 1.2 billion, issuance of a loan to Aker BioMarine of NOK 800 million, and investments of NOK 700 million. This was partly offset by NOK 1.6 billion in dividend received. Our year-end liquidity reserve was NOK 4 billion, including undrawn credit facilities of NOK 2.3 billion. Listed investments included in our financial portfolio represented 2% of Aker total assets, or NOK 1.2 billion. Our investment in American Shipping Company increased to NOK 345 million.
This is mainly explained by the rollover of the TRS agreements in December, when Aker paid a cash amount as part of the rollover. We also received NOK 20 million in dividends from American Shipping Company. The value of our investment in Solstad Farstad decreased by NOK 50 million, and the value of Aker's investment in Philly Shipyard decreased by NOK 152 million. This value decline continued into January following the announcement from the company that the letter of intent with TOTE for the construction of up to four container vessels will not be extended. However, Philly Shipyard is continuing to pursue potential new construction projects under the Jones Act market. Next, real estate and other financial investments. Combined, the two represent 6% of Aker gross asset value or NOK 2.9 billion.
The investment was up NOK 247 million during the fourth quarter, mainly from increased loan to Aker BioMarine of NOK 13 million and increased investments in Fornebuporten of NOK 45 million. I will now go through the fourth quarter financial highlights for Aker ASA and holding companies. Let me start with the balance sheet. Please note that the figures on this slide are after dividend allocation of NOK 18 per share. The book value of our investments increased by NOK 1.7 billion in the quarter, mainly explained by the NOK 1.6 billion investment in Aker BP equity issue, as well as reserved write-downs of the direct investments in Aker Solutions. Total fair value adjustments increased by NOK 6.8 billion, mainly explained by positive value changes from Aker BP of NOK 6.6 billion and Aker Solutions of NOK 400 million. Total book value of our assets was NOK 22.7 billion.
In our accounts, we use the lowest of historic cost and market values. Adjusted for fair value on our listed assets, we get our gross asset value of [NOK 50.4 billion], an increase of NOK 8.8 billion. Aker's liabilities mainly consist of bond debt of NOK 5.5 billion and U.S. dollar-denominated bank loans of NOK 2.9 billion, as well as dividend allocation of NOK 1.3 billion for 2017, representing NOK 18 per share. The book equity was NOK 12.8 billion, down NOK 1.1 billion from the previous quarter. The reduction is mainly explained by the dividend allocation of NOK 1.3 billion, offset by the net profit before tax of NOK 294 million. If we adjust for fair value on our listed assets, we get our net asset value of NOK 40.4 billion, up NOK 5.7 billion from previous quarter. The net asset value per share was NOK 544, and the value adjusted equity ratio was 80%.
Our total interest-bearing debt stood at NOK 8.3 billion, versus NOK 6.6 billion at the end of prior quarter. The increase is mainly explained by the new bank debt of $200 million as financing of the increased Aker BP investment. As before, we have significant headroom with regards to our loan covenants. We had a net interest-bearing debt of NOK 5.6 billion at end of the fourth quarter, up from NOK 4.1 billion in the previous quarter. After the end of the quarter, we successfully completed a new senior unsecured bond issue of NOK 1.5 billion with a five-year maturity. The bond issue was substantially oversubscribed. To the income statement. The operating expenses for the fourth quarter were NOK 76 million, up from NOK 51 million last quarter.
The net value change in the quarter was positive NOK 7 million, explained by reversed write-downs of our direct investments in Aker Solutions, partly offset by write-downs of our investment in Solstad Farstad and our direct investment in Akastor. Other financial items were positive NOK 365 million, mainly explained by dividends received of NOK 420 million. This was partly offset by net interest expenses of NOK 52 million and net foreign exchange losses of NOK 29 million. The profit before tax was NOK 294 million. With that, we open for questions.
Questions here from the audience at Fornebu.
Marius Lorentzen , E24. You said that your investments in the Ghana project, it is estimated at below Johan Castberg levels. Do you expect to carry this all on your own, or how do you plan on financing this investment?
[audio distortion] take questions from the media after this presentation. We are in the process of preparing a PDO, the PDO process will verify the final investments. Due to the particularities of this field and the resources, we already now see an opportunity to develop the field in Ghana at an attractive cost per barrel. Probably below both Johan Castberg and a number of other projects recently approved for greenfield development here in Norway. As far as financing concerns, I briefly said in my presentation that for the next phase, the PDO phase, Aker Energy will fund the PDO activities. In our base case, we will invite financial or industrial partners to participate in the project after the PDO has been approved by the Ghanaian authorities.
Any more questions? Okay, there is no questions from the web. Thank you all for participating, I wish you all a very good day.