HitecVision and Aker Capital Fund acquires control over Bjørge ASA by completing the voluntary offer, and announces that it will make a mandatory offer and elect a new board of directors.
Reference is made to the stock exchange announcement of 28 September 2009 where Bokn Invest AS (“Bokn Invest”) announced its intention to make a voluntary offer (the “Offer”) for all the shares in Bjørge ASA (“Bjørge”), to the offer document dated 14 October 2009 (the “Offer Document”), and to subsequent announcements relating to the Offer.
Bokn Invest, a company to be owned by Aker Capital Fund and HitecVision V (through its subsidiary, HV V Invest Delta AS), has decided to waive the Offers condition of acceptance level above 90 per cent, and to complete the Offer by acquiring all shares tendered in the Offer. By completing the Offer, Bokn Invest becomes the owner of 33,494,601 shares in Bjørge, including the shares transferred by Aker Capital Fund AS and 136,885 shares comprised by acceptances received on 9 November 2009. Consequently, Bokn Invest acquires shares in Bjørge that in aggregate correspond to 76.26 per cent of the shares and voting rights in the company. The price to be paid for the shares tendered in the Offer and the shares transferred by Aker Capital Fund AS is NOK 11 per share. Settlement for the shares tendered in the offer will be made as soon as possible and no later than on 24 November 2009.
Following settlement of the Offer, Bokn Invest will make a mandatory offer for all outstanding shares in Bjørge, in accordance with chapter 6 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Bokn Invest will effect that an extraordinary shareholders meeting is held in Bjørge for the purpose of electing a new board of directors to reflect the new ownership structure.
This announcement is made pursuant to the Norwegian Securities Trading Act, section 4-1 to 4-3, section 6-8 and section 6-18.
For further information, please contact either of the managers of the Offer, Arctic Securities ASA or First Securities AS.