Novartis Public Tender OfferOn 9 July 2008 five major shareholders of Speedel informed the Board of Directors that they agreed to sell all their registered shares to Novartis at a price of CHF 130.00 per registered share. After acquiring these shares Novartis held a 61.4% stake in Speedel and announced plans to buy the remaining shares in a mandatory public tender offer at the same price. This public tender offer started 11 August 2008. The Board analysed Novartis’s tender offer at a price of CHF 130.00 per Speedel share in cash and benchmarked it in several ways. The Board, together with its financial advisor Merrill Lynch International, came to the conclusion that the price offered by Novartis adequately reflects the current value of Speedel’s shares (see below for the report of the Board of Directors as well as Merrill Lynch International’s Fairness Opinion). The Board of Directors of Speedel welcomes the public tender offer of Novartis, which the Board considers to be in the best interest of its shareholders and all other stakeholders. The Board recommends to its shareholders to accept the offer of Novartis and to tender their shares. Following completion of the mandatory public tender offer, Novartis announced on 25 September 2008 that it holds 99.8% of the current outstanding public shares in Speedel Holding Ltd. A “squeeze out” procedure is underway to cancel remaining shares under the same terms of the public tender offer (CHF 130 per share). This procedure, which is governed by Swiss law, is expected to close in early 2009. The shares of Speedel Holding Ltd. will be delisted from the Swiss Stock Exchange upon completion of the cancellation procedure. For information on Novartis see www.novartis.com.
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