The preliminary results show that shareholders who, together with Orkla, own a total of approximately 97.0 % of the shares and 98.1 % of the votes had accepted the offer at the end of the offer period.
All of the necessary official approvals for completion of the offer have been received. Orkla has therefore decided to complete the offer provided that the stipulated conditions have still been met when the final result of the offer is known.
The final result of the offer will be available and published by 11 March 2005 at the latest.
