Couche-Tard Extends Voting Period for Statoil Deal

LAVAL, Quebec – Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has extended its voluntary offer to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Norwegian-based Statoil Fuel & Retail. The voting period for Statoil shareholders -- 90 percent of whom must approve the transaction for it to go through -- will now end on May 29 at 5:30 p.m. CET instead of May 21.

Couche-Tard plans to pay $2.679 billion for Statoil, as well as a special dividend that is the approximate equivalent of 31 cents on each of the 300 million issued and outstanding shares.

The extension will allow shareholders more time to tender their shares following last week's announcement that Couche-Tard has waived the offer condition related to approvals and consents from governmental authorities, the company said. All other terms and conditions of the offer remain unchanged.

"We are disappointed with the preliminary results considering that we waived the offer condition relating to approvals and consents from governmental authorities, as announced last Friday,”Alain Bouchard, president and CEO of Couche-Tard, said in a statement. "Our NOK$53 per share offer was agreed to with Statoil Fuel & Retail's principal shareholder, Statoil ASA, following a due diligence process. Thereafter, three independent firms have confirmed that our offer reflects the true and full value of Statoil Fuel & Retail. "Statoil Fuel & Retail's board has recommended the offer to its shareholders. Since we announced our offer, no third party has demonstrated any interest to acquire Statoil Fuel & Retail. We remain firmly convinced that our offer provides full and fair value for Statoil Fuel & Retail and believe that its shareholders will ultimately recognize it by tendering their shares prior to the May 29 deadline," Bouchard concluded.