The minority shareholders of Russian private equity firm Norum, who hold 49 per cent of the company’s shares, have announced the decision to exercise their put option to sell their rema
The minority shareholders of Russian private equity firm Norum, who hold 49 per cent of the company’s shares, have announced the decision to exercise their put option to sell their remaining stake in the company to Finnish-based private equity manager CapMan.
CapMan, an alternative asset manager in the Nordic countries and Russia, was founded in 1989. Its core business is private equity fund management and advisory services. The group’s parent company has been listed on the OMX Helsinki exchange since spring 2001.
Norum is currently advising three private equity funds: Norum I, Norum II and Norum Russia Fund III. Norum’s investment strategy is to invest into Russian small and medium-sized companies seeking for growth capital.
CapMan acquired Norum in August 2008. The purchase price for the remaining shares will be approximately EUR3.6m. CapMan will finance the acquisition with cash and a directed share issue to the sellers.
Following the transaction the remaining 49 per cent of Norum shares will transfer to CapMan’s ownership. The purchase price for the shares will be approximately EUR3.6m, of which approximately EUR1.8m will be paid in cash and EUR 1.8m in CapMan B shares through a directed issue to the sellers.
CapMan’s board of directors has resolved on 20 April 2009 to issue a total of 2,216,541 new CapMan B shares for this purpose. The value of each B share in the transaction is EUR0.81 corresponding to the volume weighted average trading price of CapMan B shares between 14 March 2009 and 14 April 2009. After the share issue there will be 77,674,965 CapMan B shares in total. The issued shares will be promptly registered to the Trade Register.
The minority shareholders of Norum consist of the company’s management, who also act as investment professionals in the current CapMan Russia team. Following the transaction their ownership in CapMan will increase to approximately 4.3 per cent of CapMan shares. 49.2 per cent of the B shares owned by the sellers are under lock-up which will be gradually released over a three-year time period ending June 2012.
CapMan Plcsigned the Norum acquisition in May 2008, and 51 per cent of Norum shares were transferred to CapMan’s ownership in August 2008. Due to the sellers’ put option Norum has been consolidated in CapMan Group’s figures as a 100 per cent owned subsidiary since September 2008.
