Extraordinary General Meeting
At the Extraordinary General Meeting in Storebrand ASA on Wednesday, 27 January, the Group's Board of Directors was authorised to increase the share capital by up to NOK 138.5 million by way of one or more issues for cash. This is equivalent to 10% (approx. 27.7 million) new shares in Storebrand ASA. The authority is valid through to the Annual General Meeting in the year 2000, and is limited in the sense that it applies only to the Group's plans to acquire Finansbanken.
Storebrand will offer a cash payment of NOK 40 per Finansbanken ASA share. The offer covers all outstanding shares and convertible bonds in Finansbanken ASA, and this values Finansbanken at approx. NOK 1.6 billion. Storebrand will pay interest compensation at the rate of 8% p.a. from acceptance to settlement. The offer will be open from 1 February and through to 1700 hours on 12 February 1999. When announcing its plans to bid for Finansbanken, Storebrand took the reservation that a due diligence review of the bank should be carried out. This review has now been completed, and Storebrand's management has decided to retract the due diligence reservation.
Storebrand intends to include Finansbanken in the Group in order to position Storebrand in a private banking market that is growing rapidly. Finansbanken will provide Storebrand with a very good starting point in this attractive market.
Offer to buy shares
Storebrand currently has almost 74,000 shareholders, of whom 39,000 own 8 shares or less. The high number of small shareholders in the company is a result of the allotment of shares in relation to customer relationship when the life mutial insurance company UNI Forsikring was converted to a limited company in 1990.
Independent of the Finansbanken matter, the Extraordinary General Meeting in Storebrand authorised the Board of Directors to offer shareholders with shareholdings of less than NOK 500 to increase their stake to a minimum of 10 shares and a maximum of 100 shares in the company, or to accept a redemption offer. The limit for the number of shares covered by the offer will depend on the share price of the day of the offer. With a share price of between NOK 55.60 and NOK 62.50, the figure will be 8 shares or less.
In connection with the offers, the General Meeting authorised Storebrand's Board to acquire treasury shares for a nominal amount of NOK 875,000.
Oslo, 27 January 1999 <br> <br>For further information, please contact: <br>Jack Frostad, Director of Public Relations, telephone 47 22 31 57 57, mobile 928 26 255 <br>Christian Storm, Treasurer, telephone +47 22 31 10 85, mobile 934 03 266 <br>