presentation. My name is Bjørn Wiggen, and I'm the President and CEO of the Orkla Group. 2011 has been a part of a transformation process within Orkla. The main events have been that we have sold off the Elkem business and a large portion of the share portfolio, freeing up some NOK 18 billion in capital, which we then have used to pay back NOK 7.5 billion to the shareholders, and paying down the debt of some NOK 9 billion. We have also today announced that the proposal for the general assembly from the board is that the dividend for last year paid this year will continue to be at the NOK 2.50 level.
On the strategy, in addition to the changes that we are going through regarding divestment, we want to increase our focus on branded goods. And that's what we are working on. So, in addition to what we have done with the capital to pay back to shareholders, the ambition is to increase our position within branded goods. Coming to the 2011 performance, it has been in most of our areas quite challenging market conditions. Within Orkla Brands, we are pleased with the reaction from our companies on the increased raw material prices, which we have seen throughout the year.
And by the fourth quarter, we are in balance between the increases in raw material prices, relative to the prices to the market on our products. We are also pleased that the Russian business, where we had a clear negative start to the year, now have a clearly more positive development towards the end of the year, and have a clear positive result in the fourth quarter. At the same time, we did see that the sales in some of our companies in the fourth quarter, and especially in December, was below our expectations. So some was weak markets towards the end of the year, for instance, for confectionery and for biscuits.
Within Sapa, we see very good development in our North American business, where we are well on track to reach the 6% EBIT margin target, which we have for the whole group. That has been in a flat market for the North American business. In Profiles Europe, we have seen a development which is on the same margin level than the year before. That is not something we are satisfied with. We, of course, want also to have a positive development in that part. Some significant restructuring programs have been initiated in the Profiles Europe business.
Taking out some 900 FTEs from our business by closing down plants in Portugal, in Belgium, and in Denmark. That has been done now. In Sapa Heat Transfer, which has been a strong part of the Sapa Group, we have had a weak performance in the second half of 2011. That is related both to the market, which is more challenging, but also internal operational issues, which we now have taken actions to fix those issues.
That is being done by more focus on production efficiency internally, but also looking at optimization in our production planning, because we have plants in both Shanghai and in Tingsryd in Sweden. We have moved more volume to our lower cost producer in Shanghai. Borregaard has had a strong year. The market continue to develop positively for Borregaard. There were some one-offs in the fourth quarter that took down the quarterly results, even if it was more or less on level with the last year's fourth quarter. The underlying development in the market is still strong for Borregaard.
When we look at the strategic development regarding growth, we have worked on identifying potential targets within Orkla Brands, particularly because we are currently concentrating our work on looking at businesses within the existing categories where we are already operating within the group, and also in existing geographies. The reason being that if we are in the same category and the same geography, the synergy potential is the highest. That's where we have been looking for opportunities. We do, however, see that the expectation of value from potential sellers are still at a high level, certainly relative to what we see as the market development currently.
That is something we all the time have a clear view on, because we don't only want to make growth, we of course want to make profitable growth within this area. We will continue to work on progressing towards delivering on the strategy of growth within branded goods as well. On the divestment side, I'll give you a short status report on where we are in the different areas. On Borregaard, we have had a significant internal work over the last quarter to separate especially the hydropower assets from the industrial assets. That then needs to be approved by certain authorities, because we are then splitting the company into two entities. That is being done currently.
At the same time, we have then started working towards creating interest in the market, and we still have the ambition to work on an exit from Borregaard sometime in this year. On the share portfolio, we have sold off assets for NOK 4 .5 billion in 2011. The value of the share portfolio at the end of 2011 was NOK 5.5 billion . We have been able to sell off the largest shareholdings that we have. In towards the end of last year, we sold the Tomra shares. As you will know, also this year, we have sold off our shares in Fornebu Utvikling.
We are pleased with the progress we are making. We have also now established all the necessary setup for handling the further sale of the share portfolio in a controlled manner, where we have both have the competence and the capacity needed for doing the full sell-off from the share portfolio. We will continue to sell down in the speed that you would see here, but as I've explained earlier, there are some more illiquid assets in the portfolio, where it would not be wise from a value perspective to be too fast in the sell-down process. Internally, in the setup of the organization, we have now clarified everything with the people that has worked within the share portfolio.
On REC, as announced by REC yesterday, it has been very tough market conditions for REC in 2011. That means that we in Orkla have had to take a significant write-down on the value of the shares of REC, down to the level the shares had at the end of 2011. We still have the ambition of exiting REC and are working on that to try to create opportunities during 2012. However, as you could imagine, the current market conditions makes it more difficult to reach good solutions in the short run with REC. In the meantime, REC is continuing to work internally on both in operational improvements and structural solutions.
Finally, on the strategy side, on Sapa, as we have talked about earlier, we plan to continue to develop Sapa. We think there's a very good value increase potential within the Sapa Group still. The plan is to exit Sapa within two-three years. The goals we still think is clearly a realistic target, which we have said earlier, over 6% EBIT margins with a capital turnover of three. We think it's a significant potential of increasing the margins at flat market development even. We at the moment are clearly below mid-cycle levels in the Sapa markets. As I mentioned earlier, we are running through significant restructuring programs in Profiles.
We have clear action plans for improving margins in Heat Transfer, and we are now operating on the businesses that we last year acquired in Asia, on integrating that into our business system. I would just quickly remind you that we now have businesses in Vietnam, in India, and in China, and we are also continuing to develop our business in China. We, at the moment, are satisfied with the footprint that we have in Sapa, in Asia. We do not plan in the short run to have any further large investments in buying companies or large assets. On the dividend, we have a dividend policy where we want to have a high, stable dividend to our shareholders.
Based on that, the board of directors, yesterday, decided to make a proposal of a dividend of NOK 2.50 to the shareholders, and put that forward in the general assembly. In addition to dividend, it is a part of our dividend policy also to buy back shares. We will continuously evaluate whether we think it's a value increasing potential in buying back more shares. When we look at the balance sheet, we all the time look at whether we have too much cash on hand, relative to our investment potential. If we do not see investment opportunities, we, as we did in November, we will consider paying back more to the shareholders.
For the time being, we do think that there are sufficient investment opportunities that can be followed. We propose a regular dividend to the general assembly now. If and when Orkla becomes a branded goods company, we do see that we have to follow a dividend strategy where we have more a % of the profits of the tax, rather than looking at the absolute level of dividends per share. Finally, from my side, how we see 2012. We see that Orkla Brands has a very strong position.
We do see that the market conditions, even in the relatively stable markets that Orkla Brands are operating in, it is quite challenging, which you would see, those of you who follow our peers, both in the Norway and internationally. We think with the very strong market position that Orkla Brands have, and also the work that has been done on both positioning the brands, but also on how we have handled the, the price increases relative to the raw material price increases, we think that we have a good position to start from into 2012. On Sapa, we do not expect to get any big help from the market.
We expect totally that the best guesstimate we can do at the moment is a flat market in 2012. However, on the flat market, having done the restructurings, there is on a flat market base, a clear potential of profit improvement. We continue to expect good performance from Borregaard. The developments in the market are still positive, and the prices are still on a high and strong level. There is also a good work being done internally in Borregaard on improving cost positions, and also they have some quite interesting and exciting innovation programs running within Borregaard. 2012 for us will, of course, still be the focus on improving operations and improving profitability based on that within our existing business.
At the same time delivering on a very strong transformation process, which we have initiated as our strategic direction. Now I leave the floor to Terje.
Yes, I start with some highlights from Q4. It was mixed results for Orkla Brands in the quarter. Certain categories, such as biscuits and confectioneries, saw particularly weak sales towards the end of the year. Large companies like Stabburet in Norway, continued to achieve profit growth in the fourth quarter. As expected, Sapa achieved a slightly lower profit than last year. Profits Profiles in North America continued to report good volumes and profit growth, while Heat Transfer posted very weak results in Sweden. Borregaard had to extend a scheduled maintenance hold by three- four days, and the value of the overall production loss was approximately NOK 25 million in the quarter. Otherwise, demand and prices remained good for key specialty cellulose markets in the fourth quarter.
Sell-off of the fair portfolio assets continued in the fourth quarter, with sales totaling around NOK 2 billion. As a result, the market value of the portfolio at the end of the year was about NOK 5.5 billion. Looking at the EBITDA bridge from Q4 last year, the biggest difference in profit is due to a gain of around NOK 200 million on the sale of Orkla's headquarters in the fourth quarter of 2010. Otherwise, as mentioned earlier, Sapa Heat Transfer achieved particularly weak results in Sweden. The Heat Transfer business in China continued to report satisfactory results, although they, too, were somewhat lower than in the good quarter of last year. Volume growth in North America and lower costs in Europe both contributed to profit improvements in Sapa Profiles.
Orkla Brands' underlying profit was about 3% below, last quarter, the same quarter last year. Some comments to the financial statements for the year. Group operating income totals about NOK 61 billion for the full year. That represents an increase of approximately 6%. This comes primarily from increased volumes in Sapa, and as well as price increases to compensate for higher raw material costs in Orkla Brands. EBITDA, amounting to about NOK 4 billion, was around NOK 100 million better than last year. Other revenues and expenses were largely related to provisions for restructuring at Sapa, totaling about NOK 700 million, while the sale of Bakers generated an accounting loss in the fourth quarter of about NOK 155 million.
As you know, Orkla applies the mark-to-market method for evaluating its investment in REC. During the year, the REC share price fell from about NOK 17.79- NOK 3.32, and the accounting write-down was thus NOK 5.6 billion, and it is presented on the line for associates. Sale of portfolio assets, in line with the strategy, has generated a gain of NOK 1.6 billion for the full year. At year-end, the value of the portfolio was about NOK 5.5 billion, with unrealized gains of NOK 1.1 billion. Accounting tax charges, the tax charge is slightly higher than 2010. This is partly explained by the fact that Sapa has deferred tax assets in some European countries that have not been taken into account in the financial statement.
Otherwise, the underlying tax charge on Orkla's industrial activities is about 28%, while profits from sale of shares and businesses are largely tax-free. The group's financial flexibility was significantly strengthened in 2011. Approximately NOK 18 billion was freed up by the sale of Elkem and the sale of portfolio assets, and net interest-bearing liabilities were reduced from NOK 19.7 billion- NOK 10.6 billion at the end of the year. Orkla has also a very robust debt structure, with a balanced maturity profile and substantial unutilized credit facilities. Average maturity is 4.1 years. We have no financial covenants in our loan agreement. The blue sections show unutilized drawing facilities, and in some, these represent about NOK 15 billion.
Group's financial strength also very satisfactory, with an equity ratio of 51.8% and a net gearing of 0.31. Over to some of the business areas, starting with Borregaard. Chemical business achieved its best results in 2011, with an EBITDA of NOK 531 million. As mentioned in the fourth quarter, profit was negatively impacted by the fact that a scheduled maintenance halt had to be extended by three-four days, and overall production loss represented a negative impact on profit of approximately NOK 75 million. Demand and prices for specialty cellulose remained strong in the quarter, and profit from this part of the business was still very satisfactory. Ingredients and Pharma had lower shipments than in the same quarter of 2010, and thus some weaker results in this quarter.
Heavy precipitation resulted in high production for hydropower in the fourth quarter. However, power prices remained low during the quarter, and profit amounted to barely 20% more than in 2010. In Sauda, both snowpack and reservoir levels are now higher than normal for the season. For my finally, Jotun. Jotun has not yet released its full year results. However, Jotun continued its organic growth in 2011 and achieved a volume growth of approximately 11%. Substantially higher raw material prices weakened the company's margin. As of eight months, EBITDA was about NOK 800 million. I leave it over to Svein Tore.
Thank you. I'm Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of the Sapa Group. As already stated by Mr. Wiggen and Mr. Andersen, we have faced tough markets in fourth quarter of 2011. Yet, Sapa has strengthened its market position in several of its key markets. In North America, the profiles market overall was flat, but Sapa increased the sales volume in the quarter by 13% compared to same period last year. In Europe, the market has continued its downward trend, and it was weak in fourth quarter, and we saw a reduction of approximately 9%. In Sapa Heat Transfer, there has also been soft markets, with automotive market in China being down 7%, and in Europe, 8% compared to same quarter last year. In North America, the volume was up, however, by 8%.
Sapa held its total sales volume at about the same level as same period in 2010, the geographic mix was somewhat weaker. The ultimate end market for aluminum extrusions are, to a large degree, building and construction. About 40% of our products end up in the building and construction industry, the market for building and construction, both in Europe and in North America, continues to be at a low level. Going on to the results, our EBIT for the quarter came in at NOK 114 million, down from NOK 155 million the year before. Within profiles, we have an increase in EBIT from NOK 30 million to NOK 81 million, to a large extent, driven by volume growth and improved productivity and operational performance in our North American operation.
Total sales volume for North America ended at 95,000 tons, which is then 13% higher than the year before. In Europe, we sold 95,000 tons. This is a reduction of 9% compared to same period last year. We were able to offset this, to a large degree, from operational improvements within our European operations. Building Sapa Building System had an EBIT slightly ahead of 2010, and in light of the challenging building and construction markets, that's a satisfactory result. The reduction in EBIT within the Heat Transfer and building system area is then driven by a reduction in Heat Transfer, and to a large extent, from our Swedish Heat Transfer operations. both due to some weak operations and also a strong Swedish krona.
We have a Swedish krona base, cost base, and our main trading currencies are euros and U.S. dollars. Additionally, margins for our business in China were weaker in the quarter, and to a large extent explained by weaker margins for our export business, as local Chinese aluminum prices in the quarter have been higher than world market prices for aluminum. In total, we are not satisfied with the results for heat transfer, and we are taking a number of actions to improve this. As mentioned in the third quarter result presentation, we are implementing price increases to partly compensate for the increased Swedish currency, and this will start to have effect in first quarter of 2012, sorry. We are continuously evaluating how to optimize our product and production allocation.
As a result of that, we are moving some volume from Sweden to China to leverage on our lower cost base in China. In addition to that, we are carrying out a number of operational improvement programs, in particular in Sapa Heat Transfer, Sweden, and amongst others, we are in the completion phase of our cost health and the upgrade of the cold rolling mill in Sweden, and this will have effect towards the end of the year, 2012, second half. Sapa Profiles North America, as mentioned, we have had an increase of 11,000 tons compared to fourth quarter 2010, and we are quite pleased to see further productivity improvement and results of the footprint optimization in the region. In Europe, we've had unsatisfactory profitability as a whole.
In fourth quarter, we had a market-driven volume reduction of 9% compared to fourth quarter of 2011. We are offsetting that by operational improvement, and we have, in the quarter, made significant changes to the European organization and strengthened that. As Bjørn already mentioned, we have finalized our expansion phase in Asia. We have in December completed the acquisition of a large extruder outside Shanghai. As a result now of having a truly global profiles business, we have also organized the profiles area as one business area to have a better global offering to our global customers, and also to further facilitate the transfer of best practice and product allocation within the area.
We are carrying out a number of restructuring and improvement programs, as announced in third quarter, and in total, this encompasses a reduction of 900 employees, and this is effectuated. The EBIT impact of this is NOK 250 million-NOK 300 million annual impact. We are on track, and the effect of this will gradually come in 2012, with full effect at the end of 2012. Looking into 2012, we do see some positive momentum in the North American market, mainly driven by improvement in the transportation and automotive markets. We see moderate growth in 2012 in North America. In Europe, the picture is more mixed, and we foresee that the weak trend in Europe continues.
In China, there's still growth, yet the growth rates are at a lower level than we've seen in recent years. If you then look at the long-term trends for aluminum extrusions consumption, we see that we are still significantly below the trend line. As I stated earlier in the presentation, 40% of the end use of extrusions go into the building and construction industry, and these markets are still fairly low. As for a short-term outlook, we do expect a moderate growth for profiles in North America, while the weak market trend in Europe is expected to continue. Fourth quarter has dropped down due to holidays, and first quarter, we then expect to be seasonally better than fourth quarter. We will get a positive contribution from renegotiated contracts within Sapa Heat Transfer.
However, we also see that there is a somewhat weaker demand for heat transfer, but we do expect that first quarter will be better than fourth quarter of 2011. We will see the benefits of an improved cost base as a result of our operational improvement programs and the restructuring, with full contribution towards the end of 2012. Thank you. I will then leave the floor to Torkild Nordberg, Orkla Brands.
Good morning, my name is Torkild Nordberg, and I will present the results for Orkla Brands. This graph shows the profit development for Orkla Brands over eight years, and it's a combination of organic and structural growth. Last quarter, we are observing a reduction in our profits, primarily because of increased headwind in our markets. In spite of significant raw material cost increases, which continue in the fourth quarter, we have been able to compensate this over the year, and in the quarter, specifically, in line with our stated policy. In the first two months of the quarter, we were able to keep the results on last year's level. We observed, however, a soft finish with weak volumes for the month of December.
As a result, Orkla Brands had an underlying profit decline of 3% in the quarter versus pretty strong comparables last year. Although we are not satisfied with this, we believe our performance are pretty healthy in relative terms in the present market environment. The underlying profit margin in the quarter was reduced by 50 basis points. Our underlying turnover increased by 1% in the quarter, all related to price increases. Corresponding volume change was negative. For the total year, our organic top line increased by 2.5%, and excluding our fresh bread operation, Bakers, which is now sold, our total organic top line was 4%. The corresponding annual volume was flat. It was for our two Nordic business units, Foods and Brands, that December sales were below our expectations.
From several markets reports, we see a costing consumer and buyers sentiment, even in the Nordic grocery space. Finland and Denmark, in particular, shows negative market volume development. Orkla Foods Nordic, which consists of our broad-based food operations, had a flat top-line development in the quarter, excluding Bakers. Our two biggest operations, Sabra and Procordia, have both had a solid year, with strong growth programs leading to clear improvements in the first market. In Denmark and Finland, it has been a challenging year. Orkla Brands Nordic, which has delivered a strong and consistent growth pattern over many years, saw a decline in the quarter with an underlying top-line decrease of 1%. On the positive side, our dietary supplement business, Axellus, the Chips Group, and our textile operations, the Gjerrud Group, all had a strong quarter.
The home and personal care business, Lilleborg, our biscuit operation, and Nidar, had particularly weak volumes towards the end of the year. Some extraordinary costs in our biscuit operation, some other one-off costs, plus a reduction in some of our contract production, which I will come back to, led to a reduction in Orkla Brands Nordic profit in the quarter. Orkla Food Ingredients, our European bakery ingredients operation, is now exposed to challenging markets. In the bakery market, we see falling volumes, intense price pressure, and a clear shift from artisan bakery to industrial bakery operations, where the margins and value added is less. The new tax on saturated fat in Denmark is hurting our margarine business. OFI increased the top line with 2% through price increases, but the margins are clearly affected.
Orkla Brands International, our operation outside the Nordics and the Baltics area, had a strong quarter. Underlying top line growth was 8% and a significant improvement in the profit. Orkla Brands Russia is still improving and delivered all-time high results for the quarter, although we did not quite reach our bold ambition to deliver black figures for Russia for the year as a whole. 2011 was a very dynamic year in the raw material market, with a big increase. The spot prices came down slowly in the fourth quarter from all-time high levels in February. Our pricing policy is, as before, to transfer significant raw materials into our pricing with the natural time lag. Our company's price management are functioning well, and we were total in a cost and price balance towards the end of the year.
Even though we observed a small decline in the current market prices during the fourth quarter, we encouraged significant raw material costs also in the quarter because of our stock. Looking forward into 2012, we expect modest increases in the raw material costs, as some materials are still increasing. Our cost for EU sugar will increase significantly, and some other materials, like fruit and various wool, which is becoming more important, and nuts, are also on a rising trend. Raw materials, also from the Norwegian farming regime, will increase in the area of 3%-8% versus last year. Generally, we still believe in high volatility in the raw material markets. The key for us is to follow it extremely closely and keep our present price management policy. Have a small advantage of having a pretty fragmented raw material portfolio.
As already stated, Orkla Brands Russia, have been improving throughout the year, and Q4 was no exception, as it was the best quarter since we acquired the business. We are working hard on all value levers for the Russian operations in order to enhance the performance. We are improving our market offerings by upgrading our portfolio away from both products into and new brand and products. We also see significant structural and synergy savings by merging the two companies, SladCo and Krupskaya. Overall, we are well on track on delivering the business improvement plan in Russia. Based on a sensible market development for the Russia this year, we expect further improvements. Orkla Brands have now been operating in India for four years.
Our company, MTR in Bengaluru, is the market leader in spices and blended spices in the state of Karnataka, and also have some national leadership positions. Business is growing at around 20% per year, and thus, the top line has doubled since we bought the company. The profit margin is close to 10%. We have been able to improve the business all along the value chain, and as such, our model is working well also in the business itself in India. We plan further growth based on the MTR platform, both organically, structurally, and also by going more greenfield. That is to invest in more wide spots, both category-wide and geographically. Specifically, we plan to invest in the coming year in the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Our plan is basically to reinvest the profit from MTR in greenfield investment into two new states. With the present M&A multiples in India, this approach looks pretty attractive. We also are pursuing M&A opportunities for the platform. Being right at the center of organic growth, we are working extremely hard to increase the market value by launching big new products to the market. This is, of course, of particular importance in the stock market. As you can see from the slide, these are some examples of innovation being launched. Last year, homemade pizza from Russia, homemade...
Grandiosa from Norway, fluid chocolate from our Russian business, just to mention a new product from Kalev, a new company which we acquired recently, and the company has been developing very well since we took it on board. Here are some examples of new innovation floating into the market these days. I will particularly draw your attention to Nutrilett, our weight management brand, which we have been selling for many years, and as you probably know, we acquired last year. It is a sizable and growing brand, and actually one of our most international brands, having strong position both in Norway, Sweden, and the U.K. This year, we are taking the brand into Poland and Denmark through our own operations in the two countries.
In our short-term outlook, we expect still a pretty soft market, and we expect increased competitive pressure in order to secure volumes. As already mentioned, we base our assumptions on only modest increases in our raw materials. During 2011 and 2012, we have seen a clear reduction in our contract production volumes, where we produce for other suppliers, both business to consumer and business to business. Main reason for this decline is long-term contracts not being renewed as more capacity is coming into the market and now being more available. For 2012, this will reduce our bottom line in excess of 50 million NOK.
After this, pure contract production for other players will be just a minor part of our strategy going forward, as it normally offer quite weak margins and pretty low stability. To counter the expected headwind in Europe, we feel, as Bjørn Vigan said, we feel we are pretty strong positioned in a pretty resilient Nordic Market. We see our model is working well even in more challenging market alignment. We will, as before, base our growth on a combination of structural and organic growth. Before we move into the Q&A session, we will have a short advertising break in order to show some of the commercial for some of our new products.
All right. I think that ends the presentation. We are ready for some questions from the audience.
Paul, from Market. I guess this is a question to Svein Tore. Regarding the measures taken in Heat Transfer, could you please talk a little more about the price increases you are planning there, and put some color on what kind of price sensitivity clients got and what we could expect there? Also regarding the volume transfer from Sweden to China, could you please talk a little more about how much this relates to, and maybe if this is gonna be done in Q1 this year? Thank you.
The question related to volume transfer. This is quite dynamic. It's mainly related to product going to North America. We'll continuously monitor where it makes the most sense to produce. As I also touched upon, we have to take into account the Chinese aluminum prices when making these decisions. We have already moved production to Shanghai, and we'll have that in fourth quarter as well. We will not go into detail exactly how much we're moving and how much effect that will have.
With regards to price increases, we're not going out with official numbers on that either, other than we have implemented price increases, and that will partly offset the reduction we had due to a stronger Swedish Krona in starting from first quarter of this year.
Good evening, I'm from Carnegie. Three small questions for Torkil. You said that December was turning weak for both foods and Brands, I was just wondering, is it just that consumers are more cautious, or do you see some new initiatives from competitors, that took place in December and going into 2012? A bit surprised that you say sugar is going up in the EU, because the indexes I look at is showing sugar going down, so it would be nice to hear an explanation. Also these NOK 50 million you will lose on the bottom line, where did that happen, in foods or Brands, or can you be even more specific in Lilleborg, Nidar, et cetera?
Starting with December, soft volumes, which we saw. It's probably more related to the sentiment we see around more than actually a competitive kind of activity in December. That would be my perception of the weak December sales. It's not a pure kind of periodic or editor thing. Regarding sugar, there are two aspects of raw material prices. The first is how the Market is developing, spot markets and our cost. Regarding sugar, the cost of EU sugar is clearly improving for us, even though there are less increase in the Market as we have seen before.
Compared to what we have been used to, it's a pretty sharp increase in our EU sugar, which to also, you know, I guess, had a very special market, very different from the global sugar market, where Norway is part of. The last is related to actually several countries. One particular is related to our professional unit, where one contract is terminated, which is clearly affecting that part of the business.
One more question for Svein Tore. You mentioned that the development in the North American markets have been strong during the quarter, and that you had gained market share. Could you please talk a little more about where you think you have gained market share? Is there any market dynamics that Sapa is doing technically quite good in North America? Is there any reason to believe that we could see certain improvements also for Europe on the back of the quite solid performance in North America?
We gained significant market share in North America in fourth quarter. We have a unique position in North America, being the only truly with a true footprint that covers the whole North American market. We're seeing strong growth with our largest customers, and especially within the transport segment, where we have a strong position. We work closely with our customers, and we have grown with them. That part of the market has grown faster than the rest of the market, and as a result of that, we have gained market share in total. We have gained in other areas as well.
We are also doing a lot of activities in Europe in order to learn from the improvements that we've had in North America. We're starting to see some results of that, and we will continue to work on that in 2012.
Do you see an alternative to dividend out Borregaard to the shareholders? The second question, what is your plan for real estate?
On the exit of from Borregaard, the it is one possibility, obviously, but the the main thing that we are following is a lot of dual track work with considering both an IPO, a listing of Borregaard, at the same time, looking for industrial buyers. For the time being, we are keeping both those options open and work on those. On the Orkla real estate, we have sold off one of the largest assets, which is Fornebu Utvikling. We have some other large assets, which we are also looking at exiting.
What's actually then, if we were successful with doing that, what is left is actually the those who we have developed based on our own property, like Idun here in Oslo, and also the former Ringnes property, which we are then steadily selling off after it has been developed.
Any more questions? I don't see any. Thank you.