Fredriksen, Ofer, Wilhelmsen launch bid to take Edda Wind private

A trio of companies consisting of John Fredriksen’s Geveran Trading, Idan Ofer’s EPS Ventures, and Wilhelmsen New Energy have made an unconditional mandatory cash offer to buy all outstanding shares in offshore wind support vessel pureplay Edda Wind.

The offer will be made by a newly established company jointly owned by the three big shareholders. The new company, named Electric, has already agreed to acquire nearly 2.8m shares of Edda Wind owned by funds managed by Nordea for NOK 23 ($2.22) per share or around $6.2m.

Following the acquisition of Nordea’s shares, Electric holds approximately 84.3% of the shares in Edda Wind.

The offer for the remaining shares is a premium of 32.9% to the closing price for the shares on April 28 of NOK 17.30 ($1.67). It values the total share capital of the company at a market capitalisation of approximately NOK 2.97bn ($287.5m). As part of the offer, a delisting of Edda Wind shares from the Oslo Stock Exchange will be requested.

If, following completion of the offer, Electric holds 90% or more of the total issued share capital of the company, it intends to carry out a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares.

According to a statement on Oslo Bors regarding the offer, the trio sees Edda Wind’s concentrated ownership situation as a key hindrance for a low free float and poor stock liquidity.

“Following a series of equity capital raises, it has become evident to the three largest shareholders that it will be challenging to continue investing and scaling the company in a public setting,” the statement read.