Launch of Scrip private placement
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, JAPAN OR AUSTRALIA
- 28,832,465 new shares subscribed for through the exercise of transferable non-statutory preferential subscription rights
- Private placement of 12,416,831 scrips to take place later today
LEUVEN, Belgium – December 18, 2009 – Option NV announces that, in connection with its 1 for 1 rights offering of 41,249,296 new shares at an offer price of EUR 0.49 per share, it has received subscriptions for 28,832,465 new shares through the exercise of non-statutory preferential rights. This represents a take up of approximately 69.9% of the offering size of EUR 20,212,155.
Jan Callewaert and Pepper NV have exercised their rights in order to subscribe to new shares for an amount of EUR 3,505,706.
The subscription period for the non-statutory preferential rights ended on Thursday 17 December 2009. The 12,416,831 rights which have not been exercised during the subscription period will be offered for sale as scrips in the context of a private placement reserved for institutional investors taking place today, 18 December 2009.
Investors purchasing scrips will irrevocably undertake to exercise the scrips and subscribe to one new share per scrip at the subscription price of EUR 0.49 per share.
At the request of Option NV, the trading of the shares of Option NV on Euronext Brussels has temporarily been suspended until the end of the scrip private placement. Trading in the shares will resume after the results of the placement are announced.
The results of the scrip private placement and the final results of the public offering will be announced via a press release later today, Friday 18 December 2009 and will be published in the financial press on Saturday 19 December 2009.
The payment of the subscription price, the realization of the capital increase and the listing of the new shares on Euronext Brussels are expected to take place on 23 December 2009.