The Saevik family's Havila Holding has raised its stake in Norwegian ferry company Fjord1 to 66.5% by buying shares in a tender with a mystery investor, which has now been revealed.
Havila's subsidiary Havilafjord Holding bought 15 million shares in Fjord1 in the purchase order, comfortably more than the minimum of 11.65 million shares needed to complete the transaction.
The shares were acquired at a price of NOK 45 each or NOK 675m ($73.4m) in total, Fjord1 said in a filing to the Oslo Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Havila has secured funding for the acquisition from a fund managed by Vision Ridge Partners and the two are acting in concert, Fjord1 added.
Together, Havila and the fund hold 70.35 million shares, equivalent to 70.35% of Fjord1's outstanding shares and share capital.
As TradeWinds reported on Monday, Havila intends to develop Fjord1 into an "integrated" transportation and tourism company, possibly through a merger with its ferry company Havila Kystruten.
A project to build five battery-powered ferries for Fjord1 this year caused Saevik-owned Havyard Ship Technology to sustain massive losses, which brought the Norwegian yard in breach of its covenants in November. An agreement was struck with lenders last week.
"The Havyard situation has not influenced this [share purchase offer] process, and as disclosed by both Havyard and Fjord1 there has been reached an agreement to ensure delivery of the ferries under construction at Havyard," Vegard Saevik told TradeWinds on Monday.
Completion of the order will not trigger any mandatory offer obligations.
Vegard Saevik already represents Havila on Fjord1's board of directors with his father Per.
