TDR et al. to acquire Hurtigruten

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, and has an acceptance period of around four weeks.

It is expected to close by December 19, as Hurtigruten's board will back the deal unless a better offer is made before November 1.

The offer values the company at NOK 2.94bn and was made through Silk Bidco, a joint venture vehicle indirectly owned by TDR and two investment companies, Home Capital and Periscopus. These are owned by Huritgruten board member Petter Stordalen and chairman of the board, Trygve Hegnar, respectively.

At NOK 7 per share, Silk Bidco's offer price represents a 55.8% premium on the share price at the time of the bid, and a 66.8% premium on the volume-weighted average for the 12 months to October 28.

The joint venture holding company controlled around 43% of the share capital before the bid was tendered, though including pre-acceptances of the offer and share exchange agreements, Silk Bidco's control comes to around 55.8%.

If the bid is accepted, Hurtigruten will be delisted from the Oslo stock exchange.

Company
Founded in 1893, Hurtigruten is a Norwegian ferry operator with 12 vessels capable of transporting both passenger and cargo to 34 ports along the Norwegian coast.

The company managed revenues of NOK 3.3bn in 2013 with profits of NOK 25m.

The Tromsø-based company received international attention in 2011, when Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK broadcast the entire 134-hour trip from Bergen to Kirkenes on live TV.

People
Petter Stordalen is a board member of Hurtigruten and the owner of Home Capital, an investor in Silk Bidco alongside Periscopus, which is owned by Hurtigruten's chairman Trygve Hegnar. Daniel Skjeldamn is the CEO of Hurtigruten.

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