Hydro's Board Seeks Authority for Share Buyback
March 03 2004 - 3:38AM
PR Newswire (US)
Hydro's Board Seeks Authority for Share Buyback OSLO, Norway, March
3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Norsk Hydro ASA will at
the company's Annual General Meeting 11 May 2004 ask for
authorisation to buy back shares. Under this authorisation, the
Board may buy up to 2,808,810 of the company's own shares in the
market, over the 18 months period commencing 12 May 2004. Each
share may be purchased at prices ranging from NOK 200 to NOK 700
per share. The Board will at a subsequent General Meeting propose
to cancel the purchased shares, with a corresponding writedown of
the share capital. Based on an agreement with the Norwegian State,
Hydro's largest shareholder, the Board will also propose
cancellation of a proportional part of the State'sshares. The
State's ownership share will therefore remain unaffected by the
buyback. The compensation for the State's shares will be determined
by the average price paid in the market for the rest of the shares,
plus an interest based on NIBOR + 1 percent, calculated from the
dates of acquisition of the corresponding shares. In total, up to 5
million shares may be cancelled, equivalent to around 2 percent of
the outstanding shares. The decision to cancel shares must be made
with a majority vote of 2/3 of the shares represented at the
General Meeting. Hydro's Ordinary General Meeting in 2003 approved
a similar authorisation of share buyback. Under this authorisation,
Hydro has purchased 1,484,300 shares in the market. On 15 January
2004, Hydro's Extraordinary General meeting decided to cancel these
shares, together with 1,157,922 shares belonging to the Norwegian
State. The Board proposes that the remaining part of this
authorisation is retracted. Contact Tor Steinum Kjetil Bakken
Telephone (+47) 22 53 27 31 +47 22 53 23 13 Cellular (+47) 95 08 39
33 +47 91 889 889 E-mail DATASOURCE: Norsk Hydro ASA CONTACT: Tor
Steinum, +47-22-53-27-31, cell, +47-95-08-39-33, or , or Kjetil
Bakken, +47-22-53-23-13, or +47-91-889-889, or , both of Norsk
Hydro Web site: http://www.hydro.com/
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