Soon there was no value left for the shareholders of Ice Group, after it became known that Lyse is buying the company’s telecom business for 3 billion NOK.
The stock fell as much as 61 percent on Friday and continued to decline on Monday, as the stock closed down above 22 percent.
In total, the two-day decline in the stock exchange exceeded 70 percent. If you include the fall that occurred before the Lyse acquisition was announced, the stake is down just 80 percent in the past week.
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– The investment is a huge disappointment, the worst thing we did in my time was the unnecessary appraisal of Dag Rasmussen in the Rasmussen Group, a major shareholder in Ice, DN. The company alone lost more than a billion kroner on Ice, which became Norway’s third largest telecommunications company, after giants Telenor and Telia.
– I think Lacey is making a deal. Overall, our Ice share loss was significant. It stings, Rasmussen told the newspaper.
Interview
Ice is now priced at NOK 149 million, a stark contrast to the valuation given in an agreement with Lyse, where the company will be valued at NOK 5.56 billion.
The problem is that almost all of the money from Lyse will go to debt servicing, so there is nothing left for shareholders.
The company was in dispute with Goldentree Fund, which was a lender to Ice subsidiary AINMT Holdings, which allegedly had 20 violations of the terms of the loan.
The parties must now have reached a settlement which means Goldentree and the other creditors will receive a total of 2.9 of the 3 billion Lyse pays to Ice.
massive growth
Ice started five years ago and has grown exponentially. They now have 650,000 customers in Norway, but they have also lost a lot of money. In November, the group submitted a proposal to restructure the company to solve the problems. The announcement gave the stock market an immediate reaction that halved the value of Ice’s stock.
Just before the stock market opened on Friday, a temporary trading position for Ice stock was introduced. A little over an hour later, news broke that Lycee had acquired the mobile phone company.
Owned by Ice and Lyse, Altibox has approximately 1.5 million customers across broadband, mobile and television.
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Management has spent a great deal of time looking for the best long-term solution for the company and is very pleased to be not on the owner’s side, says Ice-top Eivind Helgaker in a Friday morning letter.
More suitors
Refinancing was absolutely necessary for Ice, but the process was very demanding due to the complex capital structure and differing viewpoints among the company’s creditors.
The company said in a statement to the stock exchange that the Ice Board has received several bids and proposals for different structures and solutions from different investors.
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