into the fourth quarter presentation for Orkla. My name is Bjørn Wiggen, and I'm the CEO and President of the Orkla Group. I'm going to present the highlights for the fourth quarter and the year, and some thoughts on our strategic direction. Our CFO, Terje Andersen, will go through the financial performance, and the CEO of Sapa will present the Sapa Group, Tim Stubbs. Torkil Nordberg, the CEO of Orkla Brands, will at the end present Orkla Brands. Highlights for the fourth quarter of Orkla is that we have had an improvement in the operational performance during the quarter if we compare with fourth quarter 2009, with a 14% increase in our EBITA.
We were especially pleased with a continuous strong performance in Orkla Brands. We also had an underlying growth in the revenues in the quarter. This improvement has come from a combination of gaining market shares and execution of programs in the different companies within the brands area. The challenge for Orkla Brands currently is the significant increase in the raw material prices, which means that price management is a very vital issue for Orkla Brands going forward. However, we think we are well-prepared for handling this significant increase in the raw material prices. For the Sapa group, we have growing markets.
The growth is not picking up at a rapid speed. It's moderate. The markets are still clearly behind the mid-cycle levels in also the end of 2010. We are lagging currently around 25% from a mid-cycle in North America, and 15% in Europe. Sapa has improved its profitability of NOK 1.1 billion in 2010 compared to 2009. For Sapa, the fourth quarter is a slow quarter, especially in the U.S. We also had some negative one-off effects for Sapa Profiles in the quarter.
For Sapa Heat Transfer, we have fully ramped up the facility in Shanghai, and we are now delivering good results from that plant, and also for the heat transfer area in total. This means that we are now steadily getting back to the EBITA levels we had before the financial crisis. We have now six quarters in a row with a steady profit improvement, now being at the level of close to NOK 4 billion. If you look at the 2010 in total for Orkla, we see that we have improved market conditions for Sapa and Borregaard.
We see that the Orkla Brands business is in stable markets, but where we have been able to continue growth in profit and margin. The EBITA margin for Orkla Brands have improved by half a percentage point up to 12.6% for the total year. We also had a very good year for the share portfolio, with a return of close to 32%, which is 6% better than the benchmark we compare ourself with, which is the Nordic benchmark. If we compare with the Oslo Stock Exchange, the difference is even higher. The clearly negative effect on the Orkla accounts in 2010 is the negative development of the share price in REC.
As we book this market to market, so we then have a value of the REC shares of NOK 17.8 billion at the end of 2010, which means a write-down of NOK 64.4 billion totally during 2010. With the current share price of REC, we could have reduced this write-down with approximately NOK 1.3 billion. We are pleased to see that REC has a better operational performance in the end of 2010. Structurally, 2010 has been an important year. We have made a lot of restructuring in the group based on the revised strategy for the group. I'm going to go a little bit more into the strategic direction.
What is Orkla's long-term value creation model? Well, for many years, it has been the combination of having industrial competence and financial competence, and the ability to combine those to create shareholder value. That is still the foundation we are working from. On the industrial competence part, the importance is to have continuous improvement and work with operational excellence. This is something we have a strong focus on in all our businesses. Also, the businesses we do not own 100%, but where we are an active owner. We also work with the strategy and support the group companies on their restructurings of the business.
We work continuously with strengthening our brands in the areas where that is relevant. In addition, we have the financial competence, where we do have a strong M&A competence. It's one of the areas we work on a lot internally. We are active owners in many companies, not only those who have we have 100% shareholding. We do have, we feel, an advantage operating in a relatively small part of the world, in the Nordic area, where we have a strong network, where we know the different companies well. We have a good basis for being able to evaluate companies' management, leadership, and so forth.
We combine this into what we are doing in the Orkla group, and in combination then with the continuous people development, and having also a strong balance sheet, and having the ability to act quickly, both investing, but also selling businesses. That's a very important part of our long-term value creation in the group. Now, we are working on still being a diversified portfolio company, but with a concentration on the smaller number areas, where the capital allocation, where the priority is clear, that that is towards Orkla Brands and Sapa. Where we, in all businesses we are operating, work continuously on operational improvements. We are focusing on active ownership.
Also our strategy in the financial area points towards even more active ownership participation from Orkla in the different companies we are investing in than before, as we will concentrate on fewer but larger investments. This is the structure we had in Orkla during the last period. We now have changed that structure to this more focused Orkla within Orkla Brands, with its stable markets, its very strong market positions based on number one positions, mostly in the Nordic region, but also in the Baltics, in Russia, and in India.
Operating with its mostly local model, and being able to build strength from being a large-scale operator in many categories, but in smaller markets. Sapa has a strong global position within aluminum extrusions, and it's a globally leading company with being the market leader in North America and Europe. We have a strong growth potential in Asia, in Sapa. In addition, we see that there is a strong value creation potential in lifting the margins in Sapa, based on getting back to a more mid-cycle economy, and at the same time, continue with the internal profit improvement programs.
When it comes to the solar area, we have taken a very important part in the development of the solar industry, both as a strong owner of REC, and as a strong believer in Elkem Solar, supporting the investment that has been made in Elkem Solar, bringing it to the level where it is today. We have, however, seen that if you want to be a global leading player in solar over time, that requires a lot of capital. We have then reduced the exposure to that industry, which we now have done also through the exit from Elkem, and then also Elkem Solar. On the share portfolio, it has a twofold mandate.
We want to generate excess return over relevant benchmarks for within the share portfolio. At the same time, it has acted also as an important creator for developing industrial options for Orkla over time. That is also a focus we will have for the shared portfolio going forward. Definitely will measure the performance against the relevant benchmarks, but we also look for creating industrial options for the future. In both cases, our focus long term will be on what we can do of long-term value creation for our shareholders.
Briefly, on the actions that we have taken to focus this strategy, and on concentrating on reducing the number of areas we are operating within, we have divestments from the forests, and also a net divestment from the share portfolio, which was done in 2010 of total NOK 3.8 billion. At the same time, we have invested in several smaller and medium-sized acquisitions in Orkla Brands, and invested a little bit more than NOK 1 billion in companies with a turnover over NOK 1.4 billion. In the South Asia strategy, we have invested some NOK 500 million in 2010, and we are also working on several other development projects there.
Obviously, the large divestment done this year is the sale of Elkem at the value of some NOK 12.5 billion . On the dividend proposal. Our dividend strategy has been to steadily increase our dividend to our shareholders over time, and that we make sure that we have the possibility to have a steady and stable dividend in the Orkla Group. For the year of 2010, the board of directors will propose to the general assembly to a dividend of NOK 2.50 billion, which is an increase by 11% on the previous year. We have paid the dividend also during a period of lower profitability.
Now, we feel that we in the group have a strong balance sheet, and that there is a possibility to increase the dividend, and giving the shareholders a good direct return on their investment. I'll leave the floor to Terje Andersen for the financial performance.
Thank you. Following Bjørn's presentation, I will now give some further comments on the financial performance of the group. Looking at the EBITA bridge, we observe a broad-based improvement, where Orkla Brands, Sapa, and Borregaard all contributed to a positive growth. In total, group EBITA improved by NOK 161 million compared with the same quarter last year. Hydropower, on the other hand, was impacted by dry weather condition and low production in Sauda. In addition, the figures from the same quarter last year include about NOK 150 million in results from sold assets. Financial investments contributed positively to the growth, mainly due to the sale of Orkla's headquarters here in Oslo.
Looking at the group income statement, a key observation is that Elkem Silicon related is presented as discontinued operations, and that 2009 figures have been restated accordingly. Operating revenues for continuing operation increased by 14% compared with the last year, and also including significant cost savings, EBITA increased by 30% on a full year basis. For fourth quarter isolated, the growth was 60%, 18% and 14% accordingly. Other income and expenses total NOK 500 million in fourth quarter. This includes the sale of Borregaard Skoger. It include a write-down of goodwill in Bakers with NOK 276 million.
In connection with the restructuring of the energy area, which included the closure of Elkem Energi trading, previously allocated tax value at group level were written down in its entirety, totaling about NOK 250 million. The last significant item under other expenses is connected to the final insurance settlements after the fire at the Sapa Heat Transfer plant in Sweden. According to IFRS, some of these costs, totaling about NOK 212 million, have been recognized in Q4 under other expenses, even though we expect that also these costs will be covered by the insurance.
According to Orkla accounting practice, the investments in REC was written down to market value, with a total effect on a yearly basis of NOK 6.4 billion. This explains mainly the low profit posted for the year for Orkla. Net financial items were lower than in 2009, due to reduced level of debt, but also lower interest rates. Average interest rates for Orkla in 2010 was 2.2%. Net financial items related to Elkem have also been restated and are included in the net contribution from discontinued operation. Cash flow has also been restated. Net cash flow from Elkem is presented on one line under discontinued operations. For continuing operation, cash flow improved in Q4. Cash flow from operation for the whole year totaled to NOK 2.5 billion.
The main difference from last year is mainly explained by increased sales volume in Sapa, and a corresponding increase in working capital. Paid dividend amounted to NOK 2.2 billion at the same level as 2009, and we have acquired companies and made expansion investments for about NOK 3.5 billion in 2010. Sold companies amounted to about NOK 1.9 billion. Net interest-bearing debt at the same level as in 2009. Balance sheet has been reduced in relation to 2009, due to the proceeds from the sale of power assets last year, and also to the reduced value of the REC investments. Even without taking the expected proceeds from sale of Elkem into account, Orkla has a strong financial position going into 2011, with an equity ratio of 53.6%, and a net gearing at the year-end of 0.42%.
I will give some comments on some of the other operations. Borregaard Chemicals experienced strong markets in key segments, with higher demand and higher prices in Q4. Tight supply for specialty cellulose gives better prices, while the lignin and vanillin business benefit from generally strong markets. In the fine chemical business, however, market conditions are more challenging, with correspondingly weak results. Higher timber and higher energy prices offsets the contribution from cost improvements, the programs in Borregaard. Hydropower, lower results than last year, mainly explained by the last year contribution from sold assets of NOK 150 million. Borregaard power plant has satisfactory results in 2009 and in Q4, in line with last year. In Sauda, we have the special dry weather conditions in 2010, impacting the results.
The full year production in Saudefaldene totaled to 1,132 GWh , compared with a more normal level of 1,850 GWh. Good year for financial investments. Significant increase in net asset value. Total return of the share portfolio ended at 31.8%. On top of this, net gains on sale of Borregaard Skoger and real estates amounted to about NOK 1.5 billion. The share portfolio outperformed the Morgan Stanley benchmark index with 6.5 percentage points, and was also well ahead of Oslo Stock Exchange. If you look at the three or five -year perspective, the share portfolio delivered better returns than its benchmark. In fact, the return the share portfolio has been above its benchmark every year for the past five years.
Jotun has not yet released its results for the last 4 months. 2010 will be another good year with 10% volume growth and improved results. After 8 months, EBITDA was up about 21%. RC experienced strong markets and good operation in Q4, and reported fourth quarter EBITA of NOK 1.8 billion compared with NOK 600 million last year. For further information about REC, I refer to RC and the presentation they made yesterday. Then I hand it over to Tim Stubbs, which will go into Sapa.
Thank you, Terje. Good morning, everyone. Thought I'd start by just giving a picture of the full year results for Sapa. This is, in a slightly different format than perhaps you've seen before, where we've attempted to add in on a pro forma basis, the Indalex performance. Overall, you can see it is an improvement of NOK 1.1 billion for the year.
We've put the tons of the output of the business on top for the first time, really to emphasize that, of course, one, the market is improving from historic lows, but also, you can see this by reflecting back on the 2008 pro forma numbers, that the impact of the improvements in the business, the impact of the strategic initiatives, which Bjørn has talked about in the past, are coming through in the results. You can see that we've made more money in 2010 than in 2008, you know, despite still having a lower market condition. This also, I think, when we look at the performance of Sapa, is always worth bearing in mind.
You know, even though the markets in both North America and Europe are improving, they are still some way below the midpoint. Again, as Bjorn was saying earlier, it's approximately 25% in North America, about 15% in Europe. Together, that accounts for about 180,000 tons in Sapa volume. You know, obviously, when you consider the marginal impact of that remains highly significant. Let's talk a little now about Q4 and the markets. Deal with North America first. The market was down in Q4. I wanna emphasize straight away, though, that this is not a bad thing. I think what we're seeing, and you can see it from this chart a little bit, is the return of the more traditional seasonality in North America, where Q4 is always weak.
You have Thanksgiving and also the Christmas period in there. Of course, Q4 is still up year-over-year. In fact, this current estimate, we believe, is actually low. There's some things going on with the import numbers right now, because, you know, our year-over-year performance is significantly better than that. We're anticipating not only some good share gain, but in fact, that year-over-year number in North America to be greater than the 4%. In Europe, again, a more traditional picture, an improvement quarter-over-quarter. The key takeaway is that from Q3 to Q4, overall, the profiles volume is down. That is not due to a share loss, that is due to a seasonal, typical seasonal effect in North America.
Just looking at the results, as I say, the key walk, is that volume overall for profiles is down some 14,000 tons. That explains easily the bulk of the difference in the EBITA. That is over 100% explained by North America. Again, as mentioned, there were some negative one-off effects in the period. Some NOK 30 million was to do with a inventory revaluation in Portugal. There was some one-off smaller Asia effects to do with the investment activities and the buildup in cost we have there. Also, I'll touch on this in the coming slides, you know, we continue to see opportunities to improve the performance of the business. You know, this is particularly the case right now in Europe.
We have work to do to continue to align, our facilities and our programs to the needs of the market. Heat Transfer had a very good year. As I'll say in a minute, the market continues to be very strong, and the outlook is very bright there. Shanghai, you know, more than doubled its capacity last year. That investment successfully came on stream. We made three small acquisitions during the quarter. Vietnam, which I will touch on in a minute, a small extrusion facility in Florida that complements the footprint for North America, and the Thule Roof Rail business in Europe. I wanted to stress with the change in leadership that, you know, the overall objective, the story that we have been explaining to you for some time, is unchanged.
You know, we still believe comfortably that this business is capable of 6% over the cycle or an 18% return on capital employed by driving the three main pillars towards solutions in terms of truly delivering a, you know, a value-add solution for our customers, but also, of course, for our shareholders. Looking at market opportunities, obviously, that is predominantly Asia. Continuing to improve our operations, you know, both in terms of their base productivity, making sure our footprint is relevant to the marketplace, and continuing to look at ways of improving our cost to serve. Of course, the third one, the last, the world-class purchasing, making sure that we are able to lever our market position and our scale.
However, in addition to this, you know, as I have settled into this new role in Europe, it's become very clear to me that I think over the top there is a further gain, and we recently initiated this in terms of, excuse me, in terms of setting ourselves a further target to save some NOK 250 million annualized. We expect to get between a third and a half of that this year in terms of looking at the synergies of the group. Thank you. This is particularly understanding the reduction, understanding our above-plan costs. I think there's significant opportunities there. Making sure we're doing a better job at utilizing our assets in the most efficient way, again, particularly in Europe.
Having a good look at the footprint of our manufacturing facilities, and as I said before, making sure they are relevant to the needs of the market, both now and into the future. On top of the initiatives we've described to you before, we see a further NOK 250 million opportunity. We've talked to you a lot about Asia. Asia still remains an incredibly exciting opportunity. You know, we were busy in 2010. As I said, we doubled the capacity of Heat Transfer, Shanghai. That is almost all fully utilized now, immediately. It gives you some idea of, you know, how dynamic and exciting that market is, and we expect to further increase it in the coming months. We acquired the Vietnamese extruder, Vijalco.
You know, that again, has started extremely well, comfortably double-digit EBIT margin business already for us. You know, very good productivity improvements. You know, Sapa was able to bring its competence into the business. Not a huge business, but I think, you know, is a good way of making sure that we understand how to integrate these businesses into Asia correctly. We also established a greenfield fabrication plant in India. That's just commencing now, and we have some significant projects ongoing, focused, as we've shown, I think, to you before, predominantly in China and India, and hope that we'll be able to describe those in more detail shortly. What's the short-term outlook? I have to say, you know, I'm, you know, really quite bullish in most markets.
I think, all the right signs are there in North America. You know, we're seeing strength in commercial transportation. We're seeing strength in the stocks or distribution markets. These historically are very clear indicators of the market returning. You know, in all our businesses, really, the only dark spot remains building construction. It is worth bearing in mind that, you know, that still is Sapa's largest single market. Obviously, with that market down, it also impacts our margin, because we lose margin on building system as well as the profiles business. Overall, North America, you know, the outlook, I think, brightens almost every day. Current sentiment, I think, is particularly good in January, so we feel good about North America going forward. Europe remains a, you know, a two-part story.
I think a lot of people have described that, but that is absolutely the case. You know, in Northern Europe, similar condition to North America, I believe. You know, there are good, solid signs of a broad economic recovery, but obviously the South, Portugal, Spain, you know, the story is significantly different there. Building systems, I think that business is doing a remarkably good job in a extremely difficult market. Again, that's well known by you. I won't dwell on it, but, you know, that, you know, the building construction market does still continue to lag the rest. Finally, Heat Transfer, as I say, you know, very strong markets. There's a number of things going on here. Obviously, automotive, being one of them, the automotive recovery, the automotive growth in Asia.
Also, you know, this is a business that is beginning to really capitalize on the high price of copper. In high heat transfer applications, in any conductive application, you know, when you get that, you start creating substitution opportunities for aluminum, and we see that as a great positive going forward. Okay, that was Sapa in brief. With that, I'll hand over to my colleague, Mr. Torkil. Thank you.
Thank you, Tim. Good morning. My name is Torkild Nordberg, and I have the pleasure of presenting the results for Orkla Brands. This graph, which most of you, I think, will know quite well, shows the EBITA development for Orkla Brands on a 12-months rolling basis over the last 8 years. Orkla Brands has, as you can see, pretty consistently increased the results over this period. For the last 12 quarters, the Orkla Brands companies have increased the total EBITA with NOK 750 million. Through the financial crisis, which did impact some of our markets quite significantly.
Orkla Brands main strengths and also the vital key for a sustainable long-term profitability, rest with our market positions, and of course, behind that, the consumer loyalty to our brands. It is through our competencies across the entire value chain, that we try to further strengthen the market presence and also to build new, strong positions in the market. Our unique multi-local model has been working well also in partly challenging markets. The profit increase has over the entire period been a result of a combination of organic growth, structural growth, and certainly also a constant focus on improving the daily operations across the value chain. In 2010, Orkla Brands EBITA ended up slightly below NOK 3 billion, representing an underlying improvement of 7% from last year.
The EBITA margin ended up at 12.6%, representing a 70 basis points underlying improvement. Over the last three years, the reported EBITA margin for Orkla Brands is, increased by 2.6 percentage points. The Nordic markets have, for the last two, three years, showed negative or low volume growth in the retail markets, and we have seen quite significant declines in most of our out-of-home channels, or the more business-to-business related areas. In the Baltics and Russia, the financial crisis have had a negative market impact, and the heat wave in Russia during summer added certainly to the challenges, for our two confectionery operations in Russia. On the positive side, we consider the quality of our earnings generally to have improved over the year.
We did manage to achieve growth in stagnant or demanding markets, and our market shares in total are increasing. We have also increased our activities and market investments, including media, compared to last year. For the total year, we did achieve through a pretty broad-based volume and mixed growth in the fourth quarter, and a consistent growth for Orkla Brands Nordic companies throughout the year, a moderate top-line growth for Orkla Brands in total. Our cost improvement programs delivered well and according to our plans. Orkla Brands Nordic and its companies have contributed significantly to the Orkla Brands result in 2010. The two Lilleborg operations, Axellus and the Chips have all delivered solid profit growth. The challenging situation for Bakers, our Norwegian fresh bread operation, is affecting both top and bottom line for Orkla Foods Nordic.
Procordia in Sweden have done well, particularly in the retail sector. During the year, Orkla Brands has acquired 11 small and medium-sized companies and 1 major brand, with a yearly additional turnover of roughly NOK 1.4 billion. The market leader in confectionery in Estonia, Kalev, and Sonneveld, a bakery ingredient supplier, were the biggest. Our cash flow is in perfect line with our EBITA, and current capital as a % of our turnover is improved over the year. Accounts receivables are increasing somewhat as a result of higher sales. Looking at the fourth quarter in isolation, the reported EBITA is increased by 4% against pretty strong comparables. On an underlying basis, it is 1%. If we further adjust, sorry, for 1 on/off adjustment for a supplier agreement, as announced last year, the underlying growth is 5%.
The EBITA growth is primarily driven by top-line growth. The volume trend is clearly improved over the year. The underlying top-line growth is around 3%, and it's coming from increased volume or mix. Orkla Brands Nordic, Orkla Food Ingredients, and Orkla Brands International had strong and broad-based growth in the quarter. One effect in MTR in India took the profit down in Orkla Brands International. However, on an underlying basis, they delivered strong profit in the quarter and turned the negative trend from earlier quarters. Our Russian operations have improved their performance during the fourth quarter, and Orkla Brands in total was driven primarily by volume and mix for the first time in 2010. MTR had good growth in the quarter and is developing in line with our business plan.
Orkla Foods Nordic had a relatively weak quarter with an underlying top line growth of -3%, primarily related to their bakery operation and an underlying profit decrease of 4%. Orkla Foods Ingredients did achieve an underlying growth rate of 7%, extreme raw material price increases for some categories, like margarine, and butter, were not sufficiently compensated in our prices during the quarter. This, together with increased advertising spending and some facing issues for fixed costs, reduced the profit by 7%. For Orkla Brands in total, we do have an underlying reduction in our trading margin of 0.3 percentage points, 30 basis points, primarily related to the significant raw material price increases, which I will come back to.
We acquired the Nutrilett brand in the quarter, which we have been successfully marketing and selling under a license agreement since we acquired Collett Pharma in 2005. Overall, we do expect pretty stable consumer markets and still quite sluggish business-to-business markets in 2011. We see some small signs of recovery in the Baltics and Russia, the development is hardly very robust. The extreme dynamic raw material situation globally do represent for us and most food suppliers, an important challenge in the coming year. The Food and Agriculture Index from the United Nations, as you can see, are now at an all-time high level and is even higher than during the food crisis in 2007 and 2008. The Orkla Brands companies do target to compensate all the increases in the raw material in full in our own pricing.
We have good system and management in place to monitor and contract this very challenging development in all our companies. With extreme changes almost overnight, we could experience a certain delay in raising our prices, and this will, of course, then affect our short-term margins for some of our operations, and eventually also in some of our businesses, affect some of the volumes negatively. In total, our raw material exposure is pretty fragmented, reflecting our broad category presence. Our most important raw materials are the ones now experiencing the steepest increases. Roughly 20% of our raw material costs are under the Norwegian farming regime, which is showing less volatility, but as you know, from an already high level.
As already announced, we are in the sales process for Bakers, and we expect to end the process before summer, as previously announced. Innovation being the hard core of organic growth, we are working extremely hard to increase our innovation rate by launching bigger and fewer news to the market. Through this effort, both our innovation rate and I think also our hit rate, are improving, and although we think there is still upside potential, our retail customers, more or less across the board, score our companies on top for our innovation capabilities. Which basically means we compete successfully with our bigger and more centralized competitors when it comes to deliver innovation and category growth for the categories we serve.
Here you can see some examples of innovation, being launched in the first quarter of 2011, ranging from a new home version, homemade version of Pizza Grandiosa, to a new biscuit, snacks, and confectionery, even a new frozen mashed potatoes from Nora, and even, which is seldom, even to a new detergent brand launched in Norway called Surf. To end this presentation, I will show you two commercials for Pizza Grandiosa, launched this quarter, and Pepsodent White Now launched last year.
Try the new Pepsodent White Now toothpaste. It gives you immediately whiter teeth, already from the first brush. En verdenssensasjon! Si farvel til gule tenner med Pepsodent White Now. For maksimal hvithetseffekt og friskt pust, prøv også Pepsodent White Now munnskyllevann.
All right, we are ready for some questions?
Preben Rasch-Olsen , Carnegie. Two questions: Is it possible, Torkild, to give the revenues and EBITA from the acquired companies in the fourth quarter? To you, Tim, you didn't mention anything about the joint venture or the potential joint venture with Chalco in China. Could you elaborate a bit on that?
Okay. Yeah. Answer is shortly, we will not give the exact details, but as you certainly notice, we are giving all the underlying comments. Through that, you have a pretty clear picture of what is the underlying and what is the additional effect.
Okay, Tim?
Hey, on the Chalco, that's a good catch. I mean, it continues positively, and, you know, we're still very excited about what that JV is going to bring, and hope to be able to tell you more shortly.
Pål Wibe, well, what will you actually do to combine industrial and financial competence better than you have done the last years? I mean, what is the practical things you will do?
Well, I think there is obviously a lot of knowledge in our industrial part about many other companies, about development in different market segments. We know a lot from the raw material side in brands, for instance, or on the aluminum and our customer bases in the Sapa part. If you can combine that with the competence we have about investments in the investment area, and being able to transfer that knowledge more between the different areas, I think that is a clear possibility. It's not easy, of course, because people have their own job to think about, and they should focus on their own markets, as the base.
There is clearly a potential there in in being able to combine it and transfer more of the knowledge.
My turn? Hi, Per Røhmes from Fondsfinans . You are changing the structure now, reporting on 3 levels, and you put everything but brands and Sapa into one category called investments. Does this imply any change or strategy? Are all these five companies on the divestment list, or do you differentiate between them? Could you elaborate-
Yeah.
on that?
Well, you could. There are some differences in those, but those are more based on a view on each company and where are they in the development phase. You could see companies there where we would want to acquire them 100%, and they could potentially be a business area. There could be others that are that we certainly would look for an optimization and look for a possible sale as well. It could be both, and we will be active owners in those companies in the period before we see whether we go one or the other direction.
We got one question from the web. It's from Peter Nyström, ABG. You say the build-up of a new organization in Asia negatively affected results for Sapa Profiles. Can you quantify the EBITA effect? Will this also be an effect in first half 2011?
Yeah. I mean, it's obviously, as I said before, it's small in comparison to the issues we had in Portugal and, of course, the overall effect of the volume. It was in the order of NOK 10 million, and we don't expect that to continue.
Okay.