Press Release from Hf. Eimskipafélag Íslands, Sjóvá –
Almennar tryggingar hf. and Kaupthing Bunadarbanki hf.
Reykjavík,
5 August 2003
Steinhólar ehf. acquires over 90% in Skeljungur hf.
Offer
to shareholders expected
Steinhólar ehf. has acquired over
90% of the outstanding share capital in Skeljungur and will make a bid to other
shareholders in Skeljungur to redeem their shares at the price of 15.9 per
share. Steinhólar is owned by Eimskipafélag Íslands’ (Eimskip Holding’s)
subsidiary Burdarás, (owning 25%), Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar (25%) and
Kaupthing Bunadarbanki (50%). The shareholders of Steinhólar will run the
operations of Skeljungur and intend to sell assets of Skeljungur not connected
to the company’s core activities.
Burdarás, Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar
and Kaupthing Bunadarbanki have made an agreement to sell all their holdings in
Skeljungur to Steinhólar ehf. at a price of ISK 15.9 per share. Burdarás is
selling 176,351,072 shares (23.35%), Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar is selling
189,005,625 shares (25.02%) and Kaupthing Bunadarbanki is selling 299,287,701
shares (39.62%). Steinhólar ehf. has in addition to the above acquired
8,575,354 shares in Skeljungur. Steinhólar ehf. will therefore own a total of
673,219,752 shares in Skeljungur or 90,7% of the company’s voting power.
Concurrently with the above transactions Burdarás will
acquire all of Skeljungur’s shares in Eimskipafélag Íslands and Sjóvá-Almennar
tryggingar will acquire Skeljungur’s shares in Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar and
Flugleidir. Furthermore, the parties behind the takeover intend to sell other
assets which are not connected to Skeljungur’s core activities.
Steinhólar ehf. will shortly make a bid to other
shareholders in Skeljungur to acquire their shares for ISK 15.9 per share which
is the highest price paid by the parties for shares in Skeljungur in the last
six months and simultaneously seek to exercise a redemption right towards
shareholders in Skeljungur. The intention is to delist Skeljungur’s shares from
the Iceland Stock Exchange.
Shareholders in Steinhólar ehf.
have a mutual call option on each others’ shares in Steinhólar ehf.
Furthermore, Burdarás and Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar have a put option on its
shares in Steinhólar ehf. towards Kaupthing Bunadarbanki hf.
The following people are considered
insiders in relation to trading in shares in Skeljungur: Benedikt Jóhannesson,
Chairman of the board of directors of Burdarás and Skeljungur; Fridrik
Jóhannsson, Managing Director of Burdarás and alternate board member of Skeljungur;
Hördur Sigurgestsson, board member of Burdarás and Skeljungur; Kristinn
Björnsson, CEO of Skeljungur and board member of Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar;
Gudný Björnsdóttir, attorney-at-law at Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar and a board
member of Skeljungur.
The Corporate Finance Division of
Kaupthing Bunadarbanki is supervising and advising on the transaction.
For further information please
contact:
Hreidar Már Sigurdsson, CEO of
Kaupthing Bunadarbanki, tel: +354 525-6108
Einar Sveinsson, CEO of Sjóvá–Almennar
tryggingar, tel: + 354 569-2602
Fridrik Jóhannsson, Managing
Director of Burdarás, tel: 525-7102
