Iceland's Milestone makes cash offer for Sweden's Invik

A Swedish subsidiary of Milestone has made a cash offer to acquire Invik & Co. for SEK 7,424m (£551m).

Prior to the announcement of the offer, Milestone's Swedish subsidiary entered into agreements with financial advisers regarding purchases of shares representing 63.1% of the voting rights and 25.9% of the share capital in Invik.

Invik's board of directors unanimously recommends that holders of shares in Invik accept the offer. Milestone has said the Invik management team will continue in their present positions after fulfillment of the offer.

The combined company will be privately owned by the brothers Karl Wernersson and Steingrímur Wernersson with a presence in insurance and banking in both Sweden and Iceland.

Gudmundur Ólason, chief executive officer of Milestone, commented: “With Invik, we are creating a business that will be able to continue to provide attractive products for its customers as well as first-class customer service. We look forward to completing the acquisition and working with Anders Fällman and his team to create a strong competitor in Nordic financial services and continue Invik's impressive track record in delivering growth and profitability.”

Anders Fällman, chief executive officer of Invik, said: “We remain assured that Invik will continue to be a strong independent financial group. We share Milestone's entrepreneurial philosophy in the development of financial services businesses and, like them, we have seized opportunities both organically and through acquisition. We believe that the cultural fit is strong and are looking forward to work with our new partners to further develop our combined businesses.”