Announcements  

Ekornes strengthens presence in contract market

Ekornes has signed an agreement to purchase all the shares in Stay AS. The acquisition will primarily strengthen Ekornes's presence within the contract market for furniture and mattresses in Scandinavia, but also opens opportunities for growth within this segment in the rest of Europe.

Stay AS is a leading supplier of furniture and fittings for hotel bedrooms and public rooms, providing design and installation services in addition to sourcing the products in question. The company has operations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and addresses the rapidly growing hotel market. At the start of the year Stay had an order reserve of around NOK 80 million, and generated gross revenues of some NOK 50 million in 2007.

Stay AS is owned by the company STAY Holding AS, which in turn is owned by Synnfjell Holding AS and Søndre Land District Council. The manufacturing company

Hov Møbelindustri-Dokka Møbler AS, which is also owned by Stay Holding is not included in the acquisition.

Stay AS's business activities will gradually be integrated with those of Ekornes Contract, a department of Ekornes ASA which operates partly within the same niche, marketing Ekornes's standard products. The department generated gross revenues of around NOK 40 million in 2007. The supply side of the contract market in the Nordic region and other parts of Europe is highly fragmented, and Ekornes aims to achieve considerable growth in this segment of the furniture market through its reputation as a solid and reliable supplier of effective solutions.

The parties have agreed not to publish the purchase price, but compared with Ekornes's other business operations, the sum is relatively small. The final figure will depend on Stay AS's financial performance in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The acquisition of shares is conditional on the discovery of no significant negative factors during forthcoming due diligence investigation.

Nils-Fredrik Drabløs

For further information, please contact: Øyvind Tørlen, tel: +47 971 11 979, Runar Haugen, tel: +47 918 95 032

This link provides a listing of all notices regarding Ekornes ASA for the past 36 months on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

This link provides information about transactions of Ekornes ASA financial instruments for the past 12 months made by primary insiders (e.g., Ekornes ASA board members and senior management).

This link provides an overview of all Ekornes ASA share acquisitions/disposals for the past 12 months that exceed threshold levels.