Investor News

Marel Food Systems  hf. (Marel) private placement of new shares was successfully completed last Friday.

The new shares were sold at ISK 92 per share or at 4% discount considering Marel‘s share price at the end of Friday. Marel‘s board of directors has resolved to increase the Company's share capital by 29,800,000 shares. The gross proceeds from the private placement amount to ISK 2,741,600,000

The new shares represent 7.97% of Marel's total issued share capital prior to the share increase. After the private placement the total share capital of Marel will consist of 403,785,697 shares.

The new shares will be paid for no later than on 10 December. The new shares are expected to be admitted to trading on OMX no later than on Thursday 13 December 2007.

The new shares were allocated to Icelandic pension funds  and other selected investors. About 2/3 of the offering was sold to pension funds and 1/3 to other investors. All of the major Icelandic pension funds will be among the largest shareholders in Marel.
 
The private placement was managed by Landsbanki Islands hf.

When introducing the acquisition of Stork Food Systems on 29 November, it was announced that Marel intends to raise EUR 147 million by issue of new shares, to finance the acquisition of Stork Food Systems. With the private placement, that closed last Friday, Marel raised EUR 30 million and at the same time expanded its shareholders base. Marel is planning an offering of new shares to pre-emptive rights holders totaling EUR 117 million next year. Landsbanki is managing the offering and has underwritten the offering with the support of Eyrir Invest and Grundtvig Invest.

Hörður Arnarson, CEO of Marel, said „We are very pleased by the impressive support shown by investors to the company and its future plans. The result encourages both management and employees in the challenging projects that await us.“