Potential purchase of shares in Cermaq ASA

The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry has initiated a process for a potential purchase of shares in Cermaq ASA. All shareholders in Cermaq ASA are hereby invited to notify Handelsbaken Capital Markets, acting as agent for the Ministry, of any offers for Cermaq shares they wish to make.

The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry (”MTI”) has put forward a proposition to Parliament (Prop. 178 S (2012-2013)) asking for permission to increase its holding in Cermaq ASA to 65%. Therefore, the MTI would like to invite all shareholders in Cermaq to make offers for sale of all or a portion of their shareholding. The process will be conducted as a ”reverse Dutch auction”, where the auctioneer receives offers for sale of shares.  The auction will start today, 20 June at 09:00 CET and will remain open until Monday 24 June at 16:30 CET unless a notice of an extension is given.  

The MTI aims to purchase up to 10.75 million shares in Cermaq, equating to approximately 11.6% of the outstanding shares in the company. The amount of shares to be purchased can be increased to 19.8 million shares, equating to approximately 21.6% of the oustanding share in the company.

The following principles will apply to the auction:

1. Minimum offer of 5 000 shares.
2. The shareholders are asked to announce to the auctioneer price and volume levels in intervals of NOK 0.50.
3. Announced volume and price levels will be binding for the shareholder.
4. The MTI will, after the conclusion of the auction period, and based on the received offers decide the total number of shares to be purchased and the corresponding clearing price.

Full acceptance will be given to all offers at prices below the clearing price. Offers at the clearing price might be partially accepted depending on the total volume of shares offered at the clearing price. The MTI will treat all shareholders equally meaning that only the offer price will be used as a criteria for deciding which offers are accepted.

Handelsbanken will not receive any sales commisions in the auction.

Shareholders with a total holding of less than 5 000 shares that would like to sell their shares will have to do this in the market. The MTI might decide to purchase shares in Cermaq ASA in the market at the Oslo Stock Exchange on Tuesday 25 June.

The MTI’s intention to purchase shares in Cermaq is subject to the aforementioned proposition to acquire up to 65% of the shares in the company is approved by Parliament. The Parliament is scheduled to vote on Thursday 20th June.

The MTI reserves the right to freely choose the amount of shares to be purchased and to cancel the auction at any time during the auction period.

 

Shareholders in Cermaq that would like to offer shares for sale should contact Handelsbanken Capital Markets on one of the following phone numbers (Oslo +47 22 39 70 00, Stockholm: +46 8 701 10 00, Copenhagen: +45 46 79 12 00, Helsinki: +358 10 444 11, London: +44 207 578 8668, New York: +1 212 326 5153).