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Odfjell Invest Ltd. to be listed on the SMB List
The Board of Oslo Børs resolved to admit shares in Odfjell Invest Ltd. to listing on the SMB List of Oslo Børs. The Board approved an exemption from the requirement that a company must have been in existence and carried on the major part of its business for at least three years prior to listing. Admission to listing is conditional on the company achieving, through its planned share issue, a sufficiently wide spread of ownership for listing on the SMB List, which requires at least 100 shareholders holding at least one round lot.
It is also a condition that the company produces a prospectus that satisfies the requirements of the Stock Exchange Regulations for a new listing. In addition, it is a requirement that the company changes the composition of its board of directors prior to the first day of listing so that Ketil Lenning, as CEO for Oddfjell Offshore, is no longer the chairman of the board. The company will be required, prior to the first day of listing, to enter into a separate agreement with Oslo Børs in respect of its management company arrangements, cf. Section 2-6 of the Stock Exchange Regulations.
The Board authorised the President of Oslo Børs to fix the date of the first day of listing, which is to be no later than 27 October 2004.
Aker ASA to be listed on the Main List
The Board of Oslo Børs resolved to admit shares in Aker ASA to listing on the Main List of Oslo Børs. Admission to listing is conditional on the company producing a prospectus that satisfies the requirements of the Stock Exchange Regulations for a new listing. In addition, approval is conditional on the company securing approval for changes in the composition of its ownership and in the restrictions on non-Norwegian ownership imposed by the Directorate of Fisheries pursuant to the 1999 Act on Regulation of Participation in Fisheries.
The Board authorised the President of Oslo Børs to fix the date of the first day of listing, which is to be no later than 27 October 2004.
About Aker ASA
Aker ASA is the parent company in an industrial group with 41,000 employees and operating revenues of almost NOK 52 billion. It is Norway’s largest private employer and the country’s fourth largest in terms of operating revenues. Aker is the leading shareholder in a number of industry groups, including Aker Kværner and Aker Yards which both are listed on the stock exchange, the fishery group Norway Seafoods and the storage system provider Aker Material Handling. Each of them is a global leader in its particular niche.
Violation charge imposed on Q-Free ASA
The Board of Oslo Børs resolved to impose a violation charge on Q-Free ASA of NOK 660,000, equivalent to six times the company’s annual listing fee, for a breach of the duty to provide information in respect of the termination of a contract.
The matter in question relates to a breach of the duty to provide information set out in the Stock Exchange Act and the Stock Exchange Regulations. The company received a letter from NSB by e-mail on 2 June 2004 in which NSB cancelled a contract with Q-Free, but the company did not convey this information to the market at this time. Q-Free only issued a stock exchange announcement on 4 June 2004 after Oslo Børs demanded that the company should inform the market of this cancellation and imposed a matching halt on trading in Q-Free shares.
In considering the sanction to be applied in respect of this breach, the Board noted that Q-Free recently incurred a violation charge of four times its annual listing fee for a similar and comparably serious breach of the duty of disclosure, cf. the resolution passed by the Board of Oslo Børs on 16 June 2004 (late notification of the cancellation of a contract with Thales).
This decision may be appealed to the Oslo Børs Appeals Committee. Any appeal must be submitted within two weeks.
