NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, HONG KONG OR THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN.
Oslo, 3 July 2020. Reference is made to the press release from ELOP AS (the “Company”) published on 2 July 2020 regarding a contemplated private placement (the “Private Placement”) and listing on Merkur Market (the “Listing”).
The Company is pleased to announce that the Private Placement has been successfully placed with a total transaction size of approx. NOK 100 million through the allocation of 16,650,000 new shares at a price of NOK 6.00 per share.
The Private Placement was significantly oversubscribed with strong support from certain new high quality investors and existing shareholders.
The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to finance the Company’s commercialization plan and general corporate purposes.
Customary lock-up agreements have been entered into with the Company, members of management and the board of directors and certain large shareholders, which, subject to certain exceptions, restricts their ability to, without the prior written consent of the Managers, issue, sell or dispose of shares in the Company, as applicable. The Company has a lock- up of 6 months, the members of management, the chair of the board, Øivind Horpestad, and board members Ketil Skaget, Lars Nilsen and Erik Langaker have a lock-up of 12 months, shareholders Middelborg Invest AS, a company owned by board member Kristian Lundkvist, and Sogn Invest AS have a lock-up of 6 months. Certain other large shareholders are subject to a lock-up of 6 months on their existing shareholdings.
Completion of the Private Placement is conditional upon payment and registration of the share capital increase pertaining to the Private Placement with the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises. The Company will have 70,302,922 shares outstanding following the Private Placement.
Allocation to investors will be communicated on or about 3 July 2020. The Private Placement will be settled by the Managers on a delivery-versus-payment basis on or about 17 July 2020 following the registration of the new share capital in the Norwegian Registry of Business Enterprises and the issuance of the new shares in VPS. The delivery-versus-payment settlement in the Private Placement is facilitated by a pre-funding agreement between the Company and the Managers.
The Company has applied for, and will, subject to the necessary approvals from the Oslo Stock Exchange, list the shares of the Company on Merkur Market. The first day of trading on Merkur Market is expected to be on or about 17 July 2020.
Advisors
Arctic Securities AS and Pareto Securities AS are engaged as financial advisors to the Company and as Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners in connection with the Private Placement and Listing (the “Managers”). Advokatfirmaet Schjødt AS is acting as legal advisor to the Company.
For more information, please contact
Øivind Horpestad, Executive Chairman
+47 910 00 626
Kjersti Kanne, Chief Executive Officer
+47 480 31 075
Important notice
This announcement is not and does not form a part of any offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities of the Company. Copies of this announcement are not being made and may not be distributed or sent into any jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful or would require registration or other measures.
The securities referred to in this announcement have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and accordingly may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and in accordance with applicable U.S. state securities laws. The Company does not intend to register any part of the offering in the United States or to conduct a public offering of securities in the United States. Any sale in the United States of the securities mentioned in this announcement will be made solely to “qualified institutional buyers” as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act.
In any EEA Member State, this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation, i.e., only to investors who can receive the offer without an approved prospectus in such EEA Member State. The expression “Prospectus Regulation” means Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 as amended (together with any applicable implementing measures in any Member State).
This communication is only being distributed to and is only directed at persons in the United Kingdom that are (i) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the “Order”) or (ii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom this announcement may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as “relevant persons”). This communication must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this communication relates is available only for relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Persons distributing this communication must satisfy themselves that it is lawful to do so.
Matters discussed in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by words such as “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “strategy”, “intends”, “estimate”, “will”, “may”, “continue”, “should” and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. Although the Company believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors which are difficult or impossible to predict, and are beyond their control. Actual events may differ significantly from any anticipated development due to a number of factors, including without limitation, changes in public sector investment levels, changes in the general economic, political and market conditions in the markets in which the Company operates, the Company’s ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel, changes in the Company’s ability to engage in commercially acceptable acquisitions and strategic investments, and changes in laws and regulation and the potential impact of legal proceedings and actions. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this release by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not make any guarantee that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements in this announcement are free from errors nor does it accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the opinions expressed in this announcement or any obligation to update or revise the statements in this announcement to reflect subsequent events. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this announcement.
The information, opinions and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as at its date, and are subject to change without notice. The Company does not undertake any obligation to review, update, confirm, or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that arise in relation to the content of this announcement.
Neither the Managers nor any of their affiliates makes any representation as to the accuracy or completeness of this announcement and none of them accepts any responsibility for the contents of this announcement or any matters referred to herein.
This announcement is for information purposes only and is not to be relied upon in substitution for the exercise of independent judgment. It is not intended as investment advice and under no circumstances is it to be used or considered as an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities of the Company. Neither the Managers nor any of their affiliates accepts any liability arising from the use of this announcement.
The distribution of this announcement and other information may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions. Persons into whose possession this announcement or such other information should come are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.
