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Arcus, the Stein Erik Hagen-dominated liquor producer, merges with Finnish giant Altia.
This was announced by Arcus in a stock announcement Tuesday morning. The new company will be called Anora Group Plc.
Stein’s Marble Erik Hagen is the largest owner of Arcus, with just over 40 percent of the shares. John Fredriksen is also one of the store owners at Arcus through Geveran Trading.
The merger will mean that Arcus will merge with Altia, before it dissolves. Several major shareholders of both companies have already indicated that they will vote in favor of the merger. Otherwise, the merger is conditional on a two-thirds majority in the general meetings of Arcus and Altia, which will be held in November.
When the stock market opens, Arcus’ stock rises sharply early on. Within minutes of starting the trade, the stock is up around 8.6 percent and is trading at around NOK 43.5.
Liquor giant
Arcus develops and sells spirits and has subsidiaries in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany. The company is known, among other things, for Braastad aquavit, Vikingfjord vodka and Løiten aquavit.
Altia produces, markets, sells and imports spirits in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The company is behind brands like Koskenkorva, Chill Out and Xanté, and it also has Jack Daniel’s in its portfolio. Altia had sales of € 359.6 million in 2019, which corresponds to around NOK 3.9 billion at the current exchange rate.
The company is valued at 300 million euros on the Finnish Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange. This corresponds to approximately NOK 3.3 billion at the current exchange rate.
With a price of 2,900 million. crowns
The merger agreement means that Arcus shareholders will receive 0.4618 shares of the new company, Anora, for every share they own in Arcus. Thus, the three largest owners of the new company will be the following, according to the stock announcement:
- Stein Erik Hagen, Marble ace, 22.4 percent.
- Finnish state investment company Vake Oy, 19.4 percent.
- John Fredriksen, Geveran Trading, 4.6 percent.
Altia’s share price on the Finnish Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange was 8.30 euros at closing time on Monday. Arcus shareholders will receive about 31.4 million shares of the merged company. Based on this, Arcus’ valuation is around 260 million euros, or just under 2.9 billion crowns at the current exchange rate.
As is well known, Arcus is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, where yesterday’s trading ended at a closing price of NOK 39.6. The stock is up just over 13 percent so far this year, after also falling sharply in mid-March when it hit the crown.
According to the announcement on the stock exchange, the new company will continue to be listed on the Finnish Nasdaq Hensinki. On the Oslo Stock Exchange, the company intends to list from or around the time of the merger, for a transitional period of four months. Thereafter, the shares of the new company will be taken by the Oslo Stock Exchange, according to the announcement of the exchange.
In addition, Altia proposes to pay an additional dividend of approximately € 14.5 million, corresponding to € 0.4 per share, to all of its shareholders prior to the merger.
The deal has received advance support and guarantees from the largest shareholders of both Arcus and Altia, it is said.
The total annual turnover of the new company in 2019 was about 640 million euros. (Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
