5th Apr 2006 07:01
FL Group hf05 April 2006 Press releaseReykjavik, 5 April 2006 FL Group realises profit from easyJet investment - Approximately EUR 140 million realised profit from time of initial investment- Sale increases FL Group's liquid funds available for new investments to a total of EUR 600 million FL Group ("the Company" or "the Group") announces today the sale of its 16.9%stake in easyJet in an international placement with JPMorgan as sole bookrunnerand JPMorganCazenove as joint lead manager. The estimated proceeds from the saleof the holding amounts to approximately EUR 325 million. By selling the stake FL Group has realised a profit of approximately EUR 140million giving an annual return of around 70%, far surpassing the firms' targetinvestment objective of 20%. Proceeds from the sale will be channelled into newinvestments during 2006. Following the sale of the easyJet stake and FL Group's recent bond issue theCompany has liquid assets of approximately EUR 600 million providingconsiderable investment capacity for the Company. From the time of its initial investment in easyJet in October 2004, FL Group hashad periodic contact with other owners of the airline as well as its management.FL Group believes that the easyJet airline has great prospects and the sale ofthe stake at this time is primarily due to other investment opportunities. Following FL Group's equity offering in November 2005, the Company raised aroundEUR 600 million and re-positioned the Company to be an investment company with abroad focus, beyond just the aviation sector. Since the beginning of 2006 FLGroup has made significant investments in a number of companies, including Bang& Olufsen (10.5%) and Royal Unibrew (17%) in Denmark, Aktiv Kapital (10%) inNorway, Finnair (10%) in Finland and Glitnir (16%) in Iceland. FL Group iscurrently in the process of making further investments during 2006 and the saleof its stake in easyJet is a step towards freeing up funds available for thoseinvestments. As a major investor in both international and Icelandic equities, FL Group hasfollowed some of the recent comments on the Icelandic economy. The Company is ofthe opinion that many of those comments do not take into account appropriatelythe strong assets that have been acquired by Icelanders abroad. FL Group's ownfinancial position remains very strong with significant liquid assets, more sonow following the sale of easyJet and the proceeds from the equity offering latelast year. Hannes Smarason, CEO of FL Group:"FL Group first invested in easyJet just under two years ago and the investmenthas proved to be a great success which has provided a foundation on which wehave built FL Group. We have enjoyed being an investor in easyJet and believethat the company is well placed within its industry and has a bright future. Nevertheless, realising profit from the investment was appropriate for the FLGroup at this time. We are working on several interesting investment projectsand the sale gives us the opportunity to look at more projects and of greaterscale. The sale of our easyJet holding does not affect our other investments in theaviation sector and we remain committed to our investments in Icelandair,Sterling and Finnair." About FL GroupFL Group is an investment company, specialising, on the one hand, in strategicinvestments and transformational projects and, as well as asset management, witha particular emphasis on active participation in markets with registeredsecurities. The Company focuses on influential investments in companies inNorthern Europe on a broad basis. At year-end 2005 FL Group's total assetsamounted to EUR 1.8 billion with an equity ratio of 63%. FL Group is registeredon the Icelandic Stock Exchange (ICEX: FL). The largest shareholders of FL Group are Eignarhaldsfelagid Oddaflug ehf.(18.9%), owned by Hannes Smarason, CEO, Baugur Group (18.3%), Icon (7.3%) andMateria Invest (6.6%). Some of the holdings are held by Icelandic financialinstitutions under nominee accounts. Further information: Hannes Smarason,CEO of FL GroupTel: +354 591 4400 Press contact UK:Fiona TooleyCitigate Dewe RogersonMobile: +44 (0) 77 85 70 35 23 Press contact Nordics:Lars JorgensenJop, Ove & Myrthu A/STel.: +45 39 27 50 50Mobile: +45 29 78 49 32 This press release is not for publication or distribution or release in theUnited States of America (including its territories and possessions, any Stateof the United States and the District of Columbia), Canada, Australia or Japan. This press release does not constitute or form part of an offer or solicitationof an offer to purchase or subscribe for securities in the United States. Theordinary shares referred to herein will not be registered under the UnitedStates Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in theUnited States, except pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration. Nopublic offering of securities is being made in the United States. JPMorgan and JPMorganCazenove acted for FL Group and no one else in relation tothe placing, and will not be responsible to anyone other than FL Group forproviding the protections offered to their respective clients nor for providingadvice in relation to the placing. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
easyJet