Oslo, 20 June 2014: Reference is made to the announcement made 6
June 2014 regarding the launch of the initial public offering (the “Offering”). NEXT Biometrics Group ASA (“NEXT Biometrics” or the “Company”) is today pleased to announce the successful completion of its Offering with its shares to be listed on Oslo Axess under the trading symbol “NEXT”. The Offering, which was priced at NOK 80 per Offer Share, includes a total of 2,909,500 Offer Shares.
The Offering consists of 2,400,000 new shares (the “New Shares”) offered by the Company and 130,000 existing shares (the “Sale Shares”) sold by certain existing shareholders (the “Selling Shareholders”). In addition, 379,500 shares, equal to 15% of aggregate number of New Shares and Sale Shares (the “Additional Shares” and together with the New Shares and Sale Shares, the “Offer Shares”) to be sold in the Offering, has been allotted pursuant to an over-allotment option (the “Over-Allotment Option”).
Following the Offering, the Selling Shareholders hold 2,730,025 shares in the Company, corresponding to 24.4% of the issued shares (excluding the over-allotment) and 435,500 options which are subject to a nine months lock-up period.
The Offering will raise gross proceeds to NEXT Biometrics of NOK 192 million, excluding the proceeds from any shares issued pursuant to the Over-Allotment Option granted to the joint bookrunners. There will be 11,187,665 shares in issue following the issuance of the 2,400,000 New Shares. The offer price of NOK 80 per share implies a market capitalisation of NEXT Biometrics of NOK 895 million.
Trading of the shares in NEXT Biometrics on the Oslo Axess will commence on 25 June 2014.
Approximately 98% of the Offering was allocated to investors in the institutional offering and 2% of the Offering was allocated to investors in the retail offering.
Notifications of allotted Offer Shares and the corresponding amount to be paid by investors are expected to be communicated to the investors on or about 20 June 2014. Investors having access to investor services through their VPS account manager will be able to check the number of Offer Shares allocated to them from approximately 12:00 hours (CET) on 20 June 2014. The joint bookrunners may also be contacted for information regarding allocation.
The Company has granted the joint bookrunners an over-allotment option exercisable by Arctic Securities as stabilisation manager within 30 days from the first day of listing to cover over-allotments or other short positions in connection with the Offering. A separate disclosure will be issued by the stabilisation manager regarding the over-allotment and stabilisation activities.
The following Selling Shareholders have sold shares in the Offering:
-Ngoc Minh Dinh, Chief Technologist and board member, has sold
68,000 Sale Shares. Total shareholding following Offering: 1,632,258 shares, including 1,628,817 shares held through Ecomnex Holding AS (in total 14.6% of the shares and votes)
-Eurostores AS, controlled by CEO Tore Etholm-Idsøe, has sold 15,000 Sale Shares. Total shareholding following Offering: 365,664 shares (3.3% of the shares and votes)
-Tore Etholm-Idsøe, CEO, has sold 20,000 Sale Shares. Total shareholding following Offering: 139,794 shares (1.2% of the shares and votes)
-FOCO Limited, controlled by Chairman Jan-Eivind Fondal, has sold 15,000 Sale Shares. Total shareholding following Offering: 318,649 shares (2.8% of the shares and votes)
-Ketil Fridheim, board member, has sold 9,478 Sale Shares. Total shareholding following Offering: 0 shares
-FKKG AS, controlled by board member Ketil Fridheim, has sold 2,522 Sale Shares. Total shareholding following Offering: 273,660 shares (2.4% of the shares and votes)
Arctic Securities ASA and Carnegie AS are acting as joint-lead managers and joint bookrunners in connection with the Offering.
Contact person:
Tore Etholm-Idsøe
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: +47 922 32 439
Email: tore.idsoe@nextbiometrics.com
About NEXT Biometrics:
Enabled by its patented Active Thermal Principle, NEXT Biometrics offers high quality area fingerprint sensor at low prices. A wide range of products format including Smartphones, tablets, PC’s, doors, time registration systems, payment terminals, flashdrives, USB-tokens, keyfobs and many more are targeted. NEXT Biometrics is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with sales, support and development subsidiaries in Seattle, Taipei and Shanghai.
For more information about the company, please visit
www.nextbiometrics.com.