Bang & Olufsen — M&A Activity 2016

Apr 15, 2016

Struer, 2016-04-15 15:30 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Company Announcement no. 15.16

As outlined in Company Announcement 15.07 of 26 November 2015, Bang & Olufsen
A/S ("Bang & Olufsen" or the “Company”) at this point in time had received
certain initial approaches in respect of a potential launch of a takeover offer
for the Company.

As stated in Company Announcement 15.09 of 18 March 2016, a dialogue has been
ongoing with one potential offeror and uncertainty has remained as to the
outcome of this dialogue.

In its announcement of 22 March 2016, Sparkle Roll Group Limited ("Sparkle
Roll") announced that they were in dialogue with Bang & Olufsen regarding a
potential takeover offer. In its subsequent announcement of 7 April 2016,
Sparkle Roll announced that they had acquired 5,665,192 shares held by Delta
Lloyd in Bang & Olufsen. In the same communication, Sparkle Roll announced that
they may in the future seek to achieve a majority ownership of Bang & Olufsen
through a public offer for all shares in the Company.

In its lengthy dialogue with Sparkle Roll, Bang & Olufsen’s Board of Directors
has on several occasions been provided with indicative deadlines for Sparkle
Roll to come to a resolution in respect of its launch of a tender offer. The
latest of these deadlines has been 15 April 2016.

In order to reduce uncertainty among Bang & Olufsen’s employees, retailers and
other stakeholders, Bang & Olufsen’s Board of Directors therefore requested
that Sparkle Roll, no later than 15 April 2016, commit to either launch a
tender offer, or substantiate its ability to do so.

As Sparkle Roll has not committed to launch a tender offer for all shares in
Bang & Olufsen and has not been able to substantiate its ability to launch such
a tender offer, Bang & Olufsen’s Board of Directors has today decided to inform
Sparkle Roll that it considers the dialogue regarding a potential tender offer
terminated.

Sparkle Roll remains a large and valued shareholder in Bang & Olufsen, and the
existing partnership between Bang & Olufsen and Sparkle Roll in the Chinese
market is not affected by the discontinued takeover dialogue.

The termination of the takeover dialogue provides clarity for Bang & Olufsen
and its stakeholders. Bang & Olufsen will continue its efforts to deliver
profitable growth based on its new portfolio of innovative products.

During the last year, several strategic and structural steps have been taken to
increase scale and reduce complexity of the Bang & Olufsen business, e.g.:

-- The divestiture of the Automotive business to HARMAN and the signing of an
Automotive brand license agreement (ref. Company Announcement 14.26)
-- A strategic technology partnership with LG Electronics regarding
development and production of Bang & Olufsen’s future TV (ref. Company
Announcement 15.09)
-- The divestiture of the non-core businesses Medicom and ICEpower (ref.
Company Announcements 14.26 and 15.12)

Based on the successful completion of the above strategic and structural steps
and the recent improvement in performance, Bang & Olufsen’s Board of Directors
considers the Company better positioned to enter a new phase of development
with focus on profitable growth.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Bang & Olufsen A/S,

Ole Andersen

Chairman of the Board

For further information, please contact:

Claus Højmark Jensen, tel. +45 96841251