Relatives of Thomas Wilhelmsen, the chief executive of Wilh Wilhelmsen Holding, has turned down a counter offer that would have seen them sell out of the maritime group.
The decision comes after the CEO made a $154m offer in mid-November to buy out six cousins and an aunt in the family-controlled group.
They had until Tuesday to decide on the offer but chose instead to reject it. They repeated their own offer that they wanted to buy Thomas Wilhelmsen out of the company.
He told Norwegian financial daily Finansavisen that he is intrigued not to have been contacted by the relatives in order to start negotiations after his offer was made in November.
Wilhelmsen said he believes the offer was in line with what financial and legal advisors recommended for similar transactions with unlisted shares in holding structures.
“Neither my mother, nor my brothers and sisters, nor I are sellers of our shares. We have been in dialogue on the ownership structure for more than two years without finding a solution,” he said.
Earlier, the family members opposing Thomas Wilhelmsen had offered $353m to get him out of the company, but he rejected the proposal.
Cathrine Lovernskiold Wilhelmsen said the relatives will refrain from commenting until they have seen the chief executive’s reaction to their rejection of his offer
