Viking Supply Ships

M&A Activity • Mar 24, 2014

Press release

24 March, 2014

TransAtlantic's board of directors evaluates the mandatory public offer from Kistefos

Kistefos AS ("Kistefos") announced on 3 March 2014 that Kistefos purchased additional shares in Rederi AB TransAtlantic (publ) ("TransAtlantic") which triggered the rules on mandatory public offers. Kistefos has today, 24 March 2014, announced a mandatory cash offer to the shareholders in TransAtlantic (the "Offer") purchasing all shares in TransAtlantic, irrespective of share class. The B-share in TransAtlantic is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, Small Cap.

According to the offer announcement:

• Kistefos offers 5.00 SEK in cash for every share in TransAtlantic, which corresponds to the highest price that Kistefos has paid for shares in TransAtlantic during the last six month period. According to the Offer, the value of all shares in TransAtlantic is about 739 Million SEK.
• The price in the Offer corresponds to the closing price of the B-share on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm on 21 March 2014, the last trading day before the announcement of the Offer, which was 5.00 SEK. In comparison, the volume-weighted average price of the B-share during the last 30 trading days up to and including 21 March 2014 is 5.01 SEK which means that the Offer means a discount of less than 1 per cent.
• Kistefos does not set up any conditions for completion of the Offer.
• The acceptance period for the Offer is expected to commence around 31 March 2014 and end around 28 April 2014. Payment of the purchase price for those who accept the Offer will be made on a weekly basis during the acceptance period.

Further information in respect of the Offer is available on the website www.kistefos.se.

TransAtlantic's chairman of the board Christen Sveaas, the board member Henning Jensen and the CEO Tom Ruud have a conflict of interest position and are prevented from participating in the board of director's handling of the Offer. Hence, the independent directors in TransAtlantic's board of directors have formed a bid committee to evaluate the Offer and deal with any issues relating to the Offer. The independent bid committee will, under NASDAQ OMX Stockholm's rules on public offers on the stock market (the "Takeover Rules"), announce its view on the Offer and the reasons for this view no later than two weeks before the end of the acceptance period. As the above mentioned board members and the CEO are considered to participate in the Offer, the board of directors will, under article III.3 of the Takeover Rules, obtain a fairness opinion on the Offer from an independent expert as a basis for its evaluation. The independent bid committee has appointed Deloitte as financial advisor to prepare the fairness opinion. In addition, the independent bid committee has appointed Advokatfirman Lindahl as legal advisor.

Investor relations contact:

Tomas Bergendahl, CFO TransAtlantic: ph +46 31-763 2378 or email: IR@rabt.se

Rederi AB TransAtlantic is a leading Swedish shipping company with headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden and additional offices in Europe. The company is organized into two business areas: Industrial Shipping and Viking Supply Ships. The company has about 850 employees and the turnover in 2013 was MSEK 2 925. The Industrial Shipping business area consists of three divisions: Container, RoRo and Bulk. The company's B-shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, Small Cap segment. www.rabt.se

TransAtlantic is obliged to make this information public according to the Financial Markets Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act (Sw: lagen om värdepappersmarknaden and lagen om handel med finansiella instrument). The information was submitted for publication on March 24, 2014 at 4:45 pm.