You might have heard of Jotun paint or the Jif dishwashing liquid (they are known as Cif in Singapore and carried by Unilever, but that is a story for another day), but did you know who is the player behind these brands?

What about a Norwegian conglomerate called Orkla ASA?  Founded in 1654, Orkla is a leading industrial investment company focusing on brands and consumer oriented companies.

Just to give you a sense of the business’ scale of operations, Orkla ASA generated operating revenues of some 58.4 billion Norwegian Krones or S$7.44 billion in 2022 and a workforce of over 20,000 employees. 

The Oslo Stock Exchange listed firm has 12 companies under its belt, in areas such as paints and coatings, home and personal care, foods, confectionery and snacks, health and food ingredients among others.

And it has set some exciting financial targets for these brands. For one thing, the firm had in November last year estimated the value creation potential for its consolidated portfolio companies to be 40 to 45 billion Norwegian Krones (S$5.11 billion to S$5.75 billion) in the period between 2023 and 2026. 

This will mean a Compound Annual Growth Rate (or CAGR) of 8 to 10% for underlying adjusted EBIT (or earnings before interest and taxes) and a margin expansion in the range of 1.5 to 2.0 percentage points. 

But how does it intend to do so? Which portfolio companies is it looking to grow versus to transform or exit? Also with Orkla selling its products in over 100 countries, what value does Asia hold for the firm?

On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Kaj-Dac Tam, Vice-President, Net Revenue Management, Orkla Group.