Salmar drops his offer on NRS – E24

NTS and Salmar both wanted to buy Norway’s Royal Salmon, but on Thursday there was news that made the former pull the longer straw.

Helge Gåsø is the chairman of Norway’s Royal Salmon, but is also the largest owner of NTS through his company, Gåsø Næringsutvikling.

– Are you happy with the result?

– Yes, we’ve been working on this for a while, says Gåsø, who doesn’t want to comment on the process further.

In a stock exchange announcement from NRS, the company wrote Thursday afternoon that the board of directors has been informed that shareholders with more than 10 percent of the share capital, including Egil Kristoffersen & Sønner AS, intend to accept NTS’s offer at NOK 240 per share. before the expiry of the offer period. This deadline expired at 16.30 on Thursday.

The declaration states, “Such approval will result in NTS ASA becoming the owner of more than 50% of the shares in the NRS and will make it impossible to fulfill the minimum acceptance requirement of 50% in the bid notified by SalMar ASA.”

In a later announcement, confirmation comes that store owner Egil Kristoffersen & Sønner AS has accepted the offer from NTS and is selling 4.6 million shares in NRS.

Eva Marie Kristoffersen, Egil Kristoffersen og Sønner’s largest owner and general manager, does not want to comment on the matter.

Salmar announced later that same day that he would not be promoting the NRS tender.

Salmar’s offer was conditional on her accepting or becoming an owner of shares in the NRS representing more than 50% of the shares in the NRS.

“Since this condition cannot be met, SalMar will not promote the show either,” the report stated.

— The battle appears to be lost for Salmar, salmon analyst Nils Olav Furi Thomsen at Fernley Securities told E24 before a letter from Salmar that the company is relinquishing the bid.

At the time of closing, the price of NRS was down 18.08 percent to NOK 226.5. It was the most traded stock on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

NTS payment

Karl Johan Bakken is the Vice Chairman of the NRS Board of Directors.

– Salmar wanted to bid 270 kroner, but NTS bid 240 kroner appeared to be the winner. What do you think that?

When you get competition for stocks, it’s often the case that the best bid wins, but then it’s not just the numbers that make it the best bid, says Bakken.

Earlier this week, the board advised shareholders not to accept NTS’s offer, due to the “significant price difference between the offers.”

Earlier on Thursday afternoon, E24 asked CFO Trine Sæther Romuld at Salmar for her opinion on the development.

“We don’t have any opinions on this, but look at what’s been announced based on the acceptance they’ve received, over 50 percent,” Sæther Romuld said.

Satheer Rommold noted that in the NOK 270 bid she included at least a 50 per cent reservation, but she “sees that many contributors have opted for a lower NOK 240 bid”.

– Have you lost the battle of Salmar now?

– We’ll look into it, said Sather Rommold.

In a statement issued earlier today, it was stated that NTS has sent a letter to Royal Salmon Norway’s board of directors requesting an extraordinary general meeting.

NTS wants to elect a new board of directors and revoke the board’s proxy over the capital increase that was granted at the annual general meeting in May, according to the exchange’s announcement.

Special placement required

Salmar asked the NRS Board of Directors to use the Board’s mandate as of May to conduct a private placement of up to 4,357,219 new shares targeting the Best Offer Bidder, with a subscription price equal to the Best Offer Price.

The NRS has confirmed that the Board is prepared to use the Board’s mandate accordingly.

The NRS has a issuance license, which can be used to ensure you have more than 50 percent ownership, for example, and guarantee the best for NRS shareholders, IR Håkon Husby in Salmar told TDN Direkt last week.