Diligentias Board of Directors recalls recommendation on Castellums offer
Diligentia's Board of Directors recalls recommendation on Castellum's offer On January 18, 2000 Castellum issued an offer to Diligentia's shareholders for which a prospectus and information brochure were drafted and sent to Diligentia's shareholders. The acceptance period for this offer expires on March 27, 2000, provided there is no extension. It can now be stated that Castellum in all likelihood will not reach a 90- percent acceptance level for its offer. Among the reasons is that SEB Fonder and Skandia, which hold 8.7 and 6.7 percent of the shares in Diligentia, respectively, have publicly announced that they do not intend to accept Castellum's offer, and that Skandia on March 20, 2000 announced a competing offer of SEK 90 in cash for each Diligentia share. With reference to the offer from Skandia, the Board of Directors of Diligentia has begun an evaluation of the current situation. It will not be possible, however, for Diligentia's Board to issue a recommendation how shareholders should decide with regard to this situation before the acceptance period for Castellum's offer expires. Due to the above and the evaluation now under way, Diligentia's Board is recalling its previous recommendation to accept Castellum's offer. By way of information, Diligentia would like to remind those shareholders who have already accepted Castellum's offer that they have the opportunity to cancel their acceptance. As indicated in the prospectus, the cancellation, to be valid, must be submitted in writing to Nordbanken or SEB by 3:00 p.m. on March 27, 2000. Stockholm, March 21, 2000 Diligentia AB (publ) Board of Directors For further information, please contact: Anders Rydin, Chairman of Diligentia AB telephone: +46-8-763 82 09 or +46-708-33 62 90, e-mail: anders.rydin@enskilda.se Mats Cederholm, Managing Director and CEO telephone: +46-8-5875 8110 or +46-70-426 8110, e-mail: mats.cederholm@diligentia.se Göran O. Westerberg, Head of Group Communications and Investor Relations telephone: +46-8-5875 8120 or +46-70-426 8120, e-mail: goran.westerberg@diligentia.se www.diligentia.se, e-mail: diligentia@diligentia.se Diligentia is one of Sweden's largest real estate companies. The book value of the Group's Swedish property portfolio amounted to SEK 11,203 million on December 31, 1999. The book value of the international properties amounted to SEK 466 million. Diligentia's overall strategy is to concentrate and develop its operations in select market sectors in Stockholm, Gothenburg and the Öresund region. Diligentia is listed on the A-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/21/20000321BIT00960/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/21/20000321BIT00960/bit0002.pdf