Speedel Board Of Directors Recommends Shareholders To Accept Announced Novartis Offer

Speedel Holding Ltd. (SWX: SPPN) today announced the recommendation of the Board of Directors regarding the public tender offer pre-announced by Novartis on 10 July 2008.

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.

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:

- The offer price includes a substantial premium compared to the volume weighted average share price (CHF 72.19) for the 60 trading days prior to the announcement of the offer.
- Most of the significant shareholders which sold their shares on 9 July 2008 may be seen as independent financial investors and judged this price to be adequate.
- In addition, the applied premium is in the range of recent comparable transactions.
- Analyst target price recommendations prior to the announcement of the tender offer ranged from CHF 70 to CHF 230, i.e. the offer price lies in the mid third of these recommendations.
- According to Merrill Lynch International's valuation using estimates made by Speedel's management the resulting equity value per Speedel share ranges from CHF 102.07 to CHF 132.36.


The public tender offer announced by Novartis offers shareholders an opportunity to sell their shares in a fair way under appropriate conditions. With the Extraordinary General Meeting scheduled for 14 August 2008 and the offering period planned from 11 August 2008 to 5 September 2008, the takeover process can be completed within a short time frame. As of 22 July 2008, Novartis was holding 67.3% of Speedel shares.


The detailed report of the Speedel Board of Directors regarding the announced offer from Novartis for Speedel's shareholders together with Merrill Lynch International's Fairness Opinion will be included into the offering prospectus by Novartis scheduled for publication on 11 August 2008 and will be available for download at www.speedel.com/section/7 from the date of publication onwards.

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