OSLO: Techstep ASA has completed the acquisition and assumed 100% ownership of Optidev, a news release said.

The purchase price for Optidev has partly been settled by the issuance of new Techstep shares, and the board of directors of Techstep has thus resolved to issue 19,744,177 new shares at a par value of NOK 1 per share to the sellers of Optidev.

The Consideration Shares are issued pursuant to the existing authorization for the Company’s board of directors to increase the share capital, as adopted at the ordinary general meeting held on 22 June 2020. Following the resolution, Techstep’s new share capital is NOK 182,539,514 divided into 182,539,514 shares, each with a par value of NOK 1.

The Company will register the new share capital with the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises and issue a separate announcement when the registration of the share capital increase is completed.

Once the registration of the share capital increase is completed, the Consideration Shares will be registered in the Norwegian Central Securities Depository and admitted to trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Following the issuance of the Consideration Shares, Optidev Holding AB (i) has acquired 18,938,797 shares in Techstep, and (ii) holds thereafter 18,938,797 shares and votes in the Company, representing approximately 10.38 % of the of outstanding shares and votes in the Company. Optidev Holding AB is directly controlled by Christian Lunding and Fredrik Logenius.

Following the issuance of the Consideration Shares, the indirect ownership of the deputy board member Jan Haudemann-Andersen of 33,917,975 shares and votes in the Company has decreased from 20.83% to 18.58 % of the outstanding shares and votes in the Company. The number of shares indirectly held has not changed as a result of the share capital increase. The shares are held through Datum AS (32,317,975 shares) and Datum Vekst AS (1,600,000 shares).

Following the issuance of the Consideration Shares, the indirect ownership of the chairman Jens Rugseth of 18,236,689 shares and votes in the Company has decreased from 11.20 % to 9.99% % of the outstanding shares and votes in the Company. The shares are indirectly held through Karbon Invest AS, and the number of shares indirectly held has not changed as a result of the share capital increase.