The recent quarter’s results for Vard appears to have shaken investor confidence in them. First, they issued a statement that results will be bad for the quarter and then they reported a net loss of NOK 44 million versus a profit of NOK 278 million for the previous year.

Digging deeper, they took an impairment charge NOK 70 million for the quarter due to the Brazilian problems so they are not profitable this quarter. However, without this impairment charge the quarter would be profitable. It seems quite drastic to write down the Niteroi goodwill to zero in one quarter, but it also makes sense to make use of this year to writeoff everything and pose for a recovery next year to manage investor expectations. The impairment charge is also non cash so it doesn’t affect cash flow.

Operations in other parts of the group remain sound, so I believe this ...