Combination with Arbonia Group completed

On 15 September 2016, Looser Holding AG announced the envisaged combination with AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG (AFG). The purchase contract entered into between AFG and the major shareholders, the Board of Directors and the members of the Executive Management of Looser Holding AG as well as the announcement of a public purchase and exchange offer relating to all registered shares of Looser Holding AG held by the general public formed the basis of this business combination. The public purchase and exchange offer was published by AFG on 29 September 2016.

The transaction will be completed as of today, 13 December 2016. Upon closing and taking into account the purchase contract with the former major shareholders, the Board of Directors and the members of the Executive Management as well as the shares tendered in the purchase and exchange offer, Arbonia AG (former AFG) will hold 97.53 percent of the voting rights and share capital of Looser Holding AG.

Today, shareholders who have tendered their Looser shares will receive 5.5 Arbonia shares for each Looser share held plus a cash compensation of CHF 23.00. The cash compensation for fractional shares will be paid on 14 December 2016. 13 December 2016 is also be the first trading day for a total of 20,373,996 newly issued registered shares from Arbonia AG (former AFG) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. After closing of the transaction Arbonia AG will have an issued share capital of CHF 287,640,318, divided into 68,485,790 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 4.20 each.

The change of name of AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG into Arbonia AG, which was approved by AFG's extraordinary general meeting held on 1 November 2016, will take effect as of today. This new name will reflect the combination of the two corporate groups originating from Arbon.

As announced, the composition of the top executive bodies of Looser Holding AG will be adjusted upon today's closing of the transaction. The former President of the Board of Directors of Looser Holding AG, Rudolf Huber, and the members of the Board of Directors, Marcella Looser-Paardekooper, Rudolf Hadorn, Thomas Lozser, Christian Wenger and Paul Zumbühl, have resigned as of the closing date. Rudolf Huber has also stepped down from the office of Acting CEO of the Looser Group as of today.

The new Board of Directors of Looser Holding AG is composed of Alexander von Witzleben, President of the Board of Directors and CEO of Arbonia AG as President, and of the members Felix Bodmer, CFO of Arbonia AG, and Christoph Fierz, the former CFO of Looser Holding AG. Christoph Fierz is expected to be appointed Delegate of the Board of Directors on the occasion of the meeting of the Board of Directors of Looser Holding AG to be held by the end of this year. As a member of the Integration Team, he will also manage the integration of the Doors and Industrial Services segments into the Arbonia Group and continue to be in charge of the selling process of the Coatings segment.

At the extraordinary general meeting of AFG on 1 November 2016, Rudolf Huber and Thomas Lozser were appointed to the Board of Directors of Arbonia AG. The appointment of the two new Board members of Arbonia AG will take effect upon today's closing of the business combination.

The process of integrating the Looser companies Prüm, Garant and Invado into the Arbonia Group's Building Safety division will start after the successful closing of the transaction. Condecta AG will be transferred to the Arbonia Group as an independent Industrial Services division.