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Norske Skog The announcement of Norske Skog's accounts for the second quarter of 2008 will take place on Thursday, 7 August at 0800 hrs. There will be a presentation with webcast at the company's premises at 1300 hrs. on the same date. More information about this event will be published on Norske Skog's website www.norskeskog.com.
The "silent period" in advance of the announcement will start on Friday, 25 July.
Result terms "Underlying operating earnings" (which was the group's operating earnings corrected for realised gains or losses from currency hedging) have been excluded as of the second quarter. The result terms used for both the group and individual segments are 1) Gross operating earnings (EBITDA), 2) Gross operating earnings after depreciation (EBIT) and 3) Operating earnings (EBIT under IFRS).
Other special items not included in the gross operating earnings before and after depreciation During the second quarter, another NOK 51 million has been charged against income in connection with the halting of the Pisa PM 2 project. This consists of NOK 17 million in write-downs and NOK 34 million in assumed termination costs. The amounts have been included in the operating earnings under IFRS.
In total, NOK 1.3 billion has been recognised as income in the form of increased value of energy contracts and embedded derivatives. The amount has been included in the operating earnings under IFRS.
Currency factors There have been no large currency fluctuations during the second quarter, and therefore only small currency effects have been included as financial items in the income statement. Norske Skog' s trade-weighted currency basket ("the Norske Skog index") had an average value of 79.1 in the second quarter of 2008, compared with 80.7 in the first quarter of 2008. As of 30 June 2008, the index value was 80.2 compared with 79.1 as of 31 March 2008. The index started on 1 January 2002.
