Nordstjernan acquires part of Rosti

Nordstjernan AB (“Nordstjernan”) and Rosti A/S (“Rosti”) have agreed that Nordstjernan shall, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Stella Plastic Holding AB (“Stella”), acquire 100 percent of the shares in Rosti Technical Plastics Holding A/S (“RTP”).

The new merged Stella/RTP group, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, will be named Rosti with Börje Vernet, presently CEO of Stella, as CEO. The merged company will have a turnover of over 150 MEUR and around 1800 employees.

RTP produces injection-moulded plastic products for a number of industries. The last 12 months RTP had sales of 112 MEUR. RTP has plants in China, India, Netherlands, Poland and Scotland. Furthermore Nordstjernan/Stella has an option to purchase Rosti’s US operations. For more information about Rosti/RTP see www.rosti.com .

Stella (formerly GP Plastic) produces injection-moulded plastic products mainly for the food industry. The last 12 months Stella had sales of 42 MEUR. The company has plants in Germany and Sweden. For more information about Stella see www.stellaplastic.se .

Nordstjernan is a family-controlled investment group that creates growth in value through long-term and active ownership of Nordic companies. The last 12 months Nordstjernan had a turnover of over 6 billion EUR. For more information about Nordstjernan see www.nordstjernan.se .

Rosti A/S is a part of the A.P. Møller – Mærsk Group that includes a number of companies within shipping, oil, logistic and retail. For the last number of years A.P. Møller – Mærsk has had the strategy to dispose of the Group’s industrial enterprises if non-core business to shipping and energy.

“Nordstjernan is looking for substantial add-on acquisitions for most of our holdings and we are happy to have found RTP for our company Stella. RTP is Nordstjernan’s first investment in Denmark and we hope it will be followed by more Danish investments”, says Tomas Billing, President of Nordstjernan. ”We will continue the strategy supporting a portfolio of world class customers with high quality plastic parts and products and we expect to continue to grow the activities even further in the future.”

“The divestment of Rosti activities to Stella seems to be a perfect match”, says Bent E. Carlsen, Chairman of the Board of Rosti A/S. “The timing is ideal having now a group of RTP companies with sustainable and profitable operations, currently showing a strong performance”, says Bent E. Carlsen.

The parties have agreed not to disclose the terms of the transaction.

The transaction is subject to customary approvals from competition authorities and is expected to be completed during Q1 2010.

RTP will continue “business as usual” until the planned closing of the transaction.

Tomas Billing Bent E. Carlsen

President Chairman of the Board

Nordstjernan AB Rosti A/S

Please refer questions to:

Tomas Billing , President of Nordstjernan AB , +46 8 788 50 00

Börje Vernet, CEO of Stella Plastic Holding AB, + 46  702 98 46 67

Bent E. Carlsen, Chairman of the Board of Rosti A/S, A. P. Møller – Maersk A/S,

+45 33 63 50 40

Stig Hoffmeyer, CEO of Rosti A/S, + 45 44 20 17 10

 

 

Tomas Billing , President of Nordstjernan AB , +46 8 788 50 00

Börje Vernet, CEO of Stella Plastic Holding AB, + 46  702 98 46 67