In a stock exchange announcement, Tallink Grupp said that it intended to increase the company’s share capital by up to €31.5 mill.
In addition, the group will conduct a public offering of new shares. The subscription period of the new shares is 18th August 2021 to 1st September, 2021, inclusive and the company said that it will offer up to 66,988,204 new ordinary shares.
In case of an oversubscription, the company may increase the number of shares offered by 10%, ie, up to 73,687,024 shares, as a result of which the company’s share capital would be increased by up to €34.6 mill.
An intended issue price per share of €0.47 euro corresponds to the accounting value of the share, i.e. there is no issue premium.
Upon their issuing, the new shares will rank pari passu with the company’s existing ordinary shares and will grant shareholders similar rights including the right to dividends for the financial year started on 1st January, 2021 and the subsequent financial years.
Existing company shareholders will have the pre-emptive right to subscribe for the new shares in accordance with the provisions of the Commercial Code. The list of the shareholders entitled to exercise the pre-emptive right to subscribe for the new shares will be fixed at the end of the business hours of Nasdaq Central Depositary of Shares (Nasdaq CSD) on 17th August, 2021 – the record date.
AS Infortar, the largest shareholder of the company, holding around 39% of all the shares of Tallink Grupp, has issued a subscription guarantee to the company under which it undertakes, unconditionally and irrevocably, to subscribe for the new shares (if offered publicly) to a value of up to €15 mill.
Commenting on the public offering, Tallink Grupp’s CEO Paavo Nõgene said: “In 2020, as the COVID crisis broke out, we had to react and act fast in order to secure the stability and sustainability of the company and, at that time, we made the decision to initially focus on finding quick solutions with our good existing financial partners and our home markets’ governments.
“We are grateful to both our partner banks as well as our authorities and governments for the support given and their continued trust in us during these challenging times.
“I am pleased that, in addition to the support from our partners and states, the faith in us has also significantly increased among our investors, the number of whom has more than doubled during the crisis and totals more than 28,700 at present, including 7,000 FDR holders in Finland.
“This figure and faith in us tells us that our shareholders support and understand the decisions made during this unprecedented year and believe they were the right course of action.
“With the intended increase of share capital and public offering of shares, we would now like to balance the steps taken so far with including our shareholders more and to offer all our good current and future shareholders also the opportunity to contribute to securing the future of our company,“ he concluded.
It is intended to conduct the public offering of the new shares simultaneously in Estonia and Finland and Tallink intends to apply for the their listing and admission to trading in the main lists of the Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange (in the latter in the form of the Finnish depositary receipts, FDRs).
The offering is being undertaken in partnership with Swedbank in Estonia and digital investment platform Nordnet in Finland.
In other news, the newest member of the Tallink’s fleet, the LNG-powered ropax, ’MyStar’, currently under construction in Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) shipyard, Finland, was due to be christened and launched on 12th August, 2021.
