Enlabs turns to arbitration to acquire remaining Global shares

According to Global, as an agreement on redemption could not be reached with all other shareholders in the operator, Enlabs requested the dispute be decided by arbitrators Anders Norman.

Other shareholders in Global can notify their arbitrators within two weeks from the date of the redemption announcement, which was made on 13 November.

Baltics-facing operator Enlabs in September put forward an offer to acquire all of the remaining shares in Global, in a deal that valued the business at SEK450m (£39.4m/€43.9m/$52.0m).

At the time, Enlabs held a 66.7% stake in Global, and earlier this month increased this to 95.8% through the shareholder offer.

The Swedish Companies Act states that if a business owns more than 90% of the total shares in another company, it may request redemption of remaining shares to allow it to assume full control.

Should the full acquisition go ahead as expected, Christian Rasmussen, who was appointed by Enlabs to the Global board in August, will serve as Global’s acting chief executive, after Tobias Fagerlund agreed to step down from the position.

The deal has already secured approval from the Estonian Competition Authority, the only authority that was looking into the acquisition, announced its approval for the transaction last month.