Novestra’s portfolio company Qbranch has been sold to Imtech from Holland. The purchase price for Novestras shares in Qbranch, including expected earn-out, amounted to MSEK 121, in addition to a dividend of MSEK 4.7 distributed prior to the sale. The sale corresponds to approximately SEK 3.4 per Novestra share. The sales price is 20 percent above the reported values as at June 30, 2011, and 53 percent higher than the implicit value based on the Novestra share price as at August 31, 2011.
“Novestra invested in Qbranch in 1999 and at that time the company had a turnover of MSEK 115, today turnover exceeds MSEK 500. It has been an interesting journey for Qbranch operationally and for Novestra as an investor. During the last year, several industrial players have been interested in acquiring Qbranch, but none of these offered such an interesting industrial match as Imtech. With Imtech as an owner, Qbranch will have an opportunity to develop and expand even faster than before” says Johan Heijbel, Managing Director Novestra, and board member of Qbranch.
“With the backing of Imtech, we will be able to combine local presence with international reach, as well as getting access to complementing services, competences and forms of delivery. We will get a very interesting opportunity to build a pan-Nordic Qbranch business, at the same time as our competent co-workers get the opportunity to work in an international arena where they can contribute with a unique competence within standardized solutions and function oriented offers” says Ulf Engerby, Managing Director Qbranch.
More information on Imtech, and Imtechs press release regarding the acquisition of Qbranch can be found at www.imtech.eu
For further information, please contact Johan Heijbel, Managing Director AB Novestra,
+46 (0) 8 545 017 50.
The information in this press release is such that AB Novestra is required to disclose pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instrument Trading Act and/or the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm rules. AB Novestra released the information for publication on September 1, 2011 at 00:05 am (CET).
About AB Novestra
Novestra is an independent investment company with a portfolio of investments in a number of privately held growth companies including Diino Systems AB, Explorica, Inc., MyPublisher, Inc., Qbranch AB and Strax Group GmbH. In addition, Novestra has an investment corresponding to approximately 6 percent of the shares in WeSC AB, listed on First North.
The Novestra shares are listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, under the symbol NOVE, in the Small Cap section. For further information regarding AB Novestra, reference is made to www.novestra.com
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