Investor News

The Board of Directors of Marel Food Systems hf. (Marel) decided to accept offers totalling EUR 38 million, equivalent to ISK 7 billion, in a successful private placement of new shares to professional investors, which concluded today. The target increase in share capital for the Offering was 15% but subscriptions for a total of 111,136,497 shares were received, equivalent to an 18% increase. The Board of Directors decided to accept all subscriptions, which were from Icelandic pension funds and international and Icelandic professional investors.

Theo Hoen, CEO of Marel:
“I am pleased with the good participation of international and Icelandic investors in Marel's share Offering. The Offering has further strengthened the company's capital structure. Ahead is a period of organic growth and harvesting following a successful period of external growth in recent years. We will now focus on improving profitability and achieving the operational efficiency that the integration of Marel and Stork offers.”

The price per share, as determined by the Board, was ISK 63. With the Offering, Marel has liquidated 61.8% of the bond class MARL 06 1 and 17.6% of bond class MARL 09 1.

At the conclusion of the Offering, the company's Board of Directors decided to increase the company's share capital by 111,136,497 shares, representing an increase of 18%. The total share capital of Marel Food Systems will be 727,136,497 shares. The purchase price of the new shares is to be paid on Wednesday, 2 December 2009. Marel will request that the new shares be admitted for trading on NASDAQ OMX Iceland no later than Wednesday, 9 December 2009.

Arion Bank, Islandsbanki and Landsbankinn were the Joint Lead Arrangers of the Offering, the purpose of which was to further strengthen Marel's capital structure, decrease currency risk and lower overall cost of funding.

For further information, please contact:

• Sigsteinn P. Gretarsson, member of the Management Board of Marel, tel: +354 563-8072
• Steingrimur Helgason, Head of Corporate Finance at Landsbankinn, tel: +354 410-7349
• Arnar Ragnarsson, Head of Corporate Advisory at Arion Bank, tel: +354 444-6802
• Halla Hjartardottir, Head of Corporate Finance at Islandsbanki, tel: +354 440-4532

About Marel
Marel is the leading global provider of advanced equipment and systems for the fish, meat and chicken processing industry. The company employs more than 3,500 people worldwide, and has offices and subsidiaries in over 30 countries, as well as a global network of 60 agents and distributors.