Silmäasema Oyj: Coronaria announces an obligation to launch a mandatory public tender offer for all shares in Silmäasema Oyj

Coronaria announces an obligation to launch a mandatory public tender offer for all shares in Silmäasema Oyj

Silmäasema Oyj              

Inside Information                                

Silmäasema has received the following information about the trading in the company's shares and a mandatory public tender offer:

Coronaria Oy (“Coronaria”) has, through share purchases made on 15 and 16 August 2019, acquired a total of 1,420,031 shares in Silmäasema Oyj (“Silmäasema” or “Company”). The highest price paid for the shares has been EUR 6.00 per share, which is also the highest price paid by Coronaria for the shares in Silmäasema.

As a result of the share purchases, Coronaria’s shareholding in Silmäasema increases to a total of 4,615,443 shares, corresponding to 32.4 per cent of all shares and voting rights in the Company, respectively. Consequently, Coronaria’s holding in Silmäasema exceeds 30 per cent of the shares and voting rights carried by Silmäasema’s shares and Coronaria is thereby obligated to launch a mandatory public tender offer for all shares and securities entitling to shares in Silmäasema (“Tender Offer”) in accordance with the Securities Markets Act.

Prior to the share purchases, Coronaria held 3,195,412 shares in Silmäasema, representing 22.43 per cent of all outstanding shares in Silmäasema. Coronaria is Silmäasema’s largest shareholder.

In the Tender Offer, Coronaria will offer cash consideration of EUR 6.00 per share in Silmäasema. The cash consideration represents a premium of approximately 7.5 per cent compared to the closing price of the Silmäasema share on Nasdaq Helsinki on 15 August 2019, the last trading day before the announcement of the Tender Offer, and a premium of approximately 9.4 per cent compared to the volume-weighted average price of the Silmäasema shares on Nasdaq Helsinki during the three-month time period preceding the date of the announcement of the Tender Offer.

Coronaria aims to commence the offer period of the Tender Offer on 16 September 2019 at the latest. The Tender Offer will be published immediately after the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority has approved the offer document, which includes the detailed terms and conditions of the Tender Offer. The offer period will be three weeks. According to Coronaria, the completion of the Tender Offer does not require approval from the competition authorities.

Coronaria reserves the right to acquire shares in the Company before the commencement of the offer period, during the offer period and/or after the offer period of the Tender Offer through public trading on Nasdaq Helsinki or otherwise.

Silmäasema’s operations will continue as normal and the transaction has no impact on our customers.

SILMÄASEMA OYJ

Jussi Salminen

CEO

For further information, please contact:

CEO Jussi Salminen, tel. +358 40 834 5818

CFO Sari Nordblad, tel. +358 50 552 7247

Mikko Merisaari, Head of Communications and Investor Relations, tel. +358 50 521 4055

Silmäasema is a Finnish company, which offers all products and services for optical retail and eye healthcare nationwide. Silmäasema is the largest private eye clinic provider offering eye surgeries and the second largest optical retail chain in Finland. The Silmäasema chain has nearly 150 stores and 14 eye clinics in Finland as well as nine stores in Estonia. The Silmäasema chain employs over 1,000 eye healthcare professionals. The Silmäasema Group’s net sales were EUR 122.9 million in 2018 and adjusted EBITDA was EUR 11.8 million.