As the current syndicated financing facility expires in March 2011, Marine Harvest is preparing for refinancing. In order to obtain flexibility for complementary financing solutions in this process, the Board has resolved to call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) where the primary objective is to seek a general proxy to issue convertible bonds. The purpose of the proposal is to enable the Board to use convertible bond loans as a part of the Company's refinancing and finance growth and dividends.
This is a form of financing which, under certain circumstances, may be attractive to the Company. To make full use of this opportunity, the board must be able to raise such loans on short notice.
As a result of recent changes in the Public Companies Act, in particular the addition of a new section 5-11a (effective from 3 August 2009), a public limited company may stipulate, in its articles of association, that documents concerning matters to be discussed at the General Meeting can be made available to the shareholders on the Company's website instead of being sent to them in hard copies. However, the notice to General Meetings must however still be sent to all shareholders with a known address. As a result of these changes, the Board also proposes to amend the articles of association to allow for the above.
The EGM will be held in Oslo 6 November 2009. The summoning is attached to this release and is available on the Company's website (
www.marineharvest.com).
For further information please contact:
Jørgen K Andersen (CFO) +47 951 43 854
Henrik Heiberg (VP Finance & Treasury) +47 917 47 724