The Ministry of Trade and Industry (NHD) has submitted a bill to Parliament (Prop. 178 S (2012-2013)) on expanding the authority to increase its stake in Cermaq ASA to 65 per cent.
On this basis, NHD today invites shareholders in Cermaq to bid for the sale of all or part of their holdings. The offer will be conducted as a "reverse Dutch auction" where the auction holder receives offer for sale of shares at different price levels. The auction starts today 20 June from 09.00 hours Norwegian time and will be kept open until Monday 24 June 16.30 hours Norwegian time unless notice of extension will be granted.
In this auction NHD intends to purchase up to 10.75 million shares in Cermaq, corresponding to approx. 11.6 per cent of total outstanding shares. The number of shares to be purchased may be increased to 19.8 million shares, representing approximately 21.6 per cent of the total outstanding shares.
The following principles apply to the auction:
- Lowest bid amount is 5,000 shares.
- Shareholders are asked to enroll for different price levels the number of shares they wish to sell at the appropriate share price. Share price must be specified on the basis of intervals of NOK 0.50.
- Reported exchange rates and prices will be binding on the shareholder.
- By the end of the auction period, NHD will, depending on the reported interest in selling at different price levels, determine the total purchase volume and its share price that clears this volume.
