Capital Markets Day on "new" Hydro

GOOD TURNOUT: Hydro's Capital Markets Days have always been well attended. (Photo: Stuart McArthur)

(Sep. 6, 2007) Operational and strategic conditions were on the agenda when invited analysts and journalists met President and CEO Eivind Reiten and members of Hydro's executive management in Oslo on Thursday. For the first time, Capital Markets Day was exclusively related to the focused aluminium company due to continue under the Hydro name after the merger of the oil and gas activities with Statoil.

Every year Hydro invites domestic and international investors, financial analysts and journalists to a presentation and summary of the company's activities and strategic evaluations.

The presentations are made by the company's executive management and participants have a chance to ask questions. The event has been an important and useful meeting place over the years between Hydro's top management and external interests.

Broad program

This year's Capital Markets Day actually started on Wednesday, when some 50 invited investors and analysts toured Hydro's aluminium plant at Sunndalsøra in northwestern Norway.

ALUMINIUM: When Hydro's oil and gas operations merge with those of Statoil on October 1, the "new" Hydro will continue with its main focus on aluminium. Pictured here is the company's large aluminium metal plant at Sunndalsøra. (Photo: Ole Walter Jacobsen)

On Thursday, some 85 investors and analysts were welcomed at the Oslo Concert Hall by Reiten who began the approximately seven-hour meeting with a thorough review of Hydro's growth strategy.

During the afternoon, presentations were made by Executive Vice President Torstein Dale Sjøtveit about upstream activities in the Aluminium Metal business area, and by Executive Vice President Svein Richard Brandtzæg on downstream activities in Aluminium Products.

Senior Vice President Tom Røtjer who joins Hydro's executive management on October 1, with special responsibility for projects, gave a broad review of the huge Qatalum project in Qatar, and Senior Vice President Jørgen C. Arentz Rostrup, who also becomes part of Hydro's top management with responsibility for the company's energy area, explained Hydro's continued emphasis on hydroelectric power and solar energy.

Towards the end of the meeting, Brandtzæg explained the establishment of the "Hydro Technology Board," an executive-level body that will stimulate and organize the company's focus on technology and innovation.

The meeting concluded with a presentation by CFO John Ove Ottestad about Hydro's financial principles and economic performance.

• The different presentations from Capital Markets Day are made available on the investor pages at hydro.com