By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--Sweden's Nordax Bank AB said late on Monday that it has been granted due diligence access to Norwegian Finans Holding ASA after proposing an improved bid for the owner of the internet bank started by Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA founder Bjorn Kjos.

Nordax said it has proposed a higher offer of 18.7 billion Norwegian kroner ($2.26 billion) after having an initial NOK17.8 billion bid rejected last month.

Nordax had offered NOK95 a share in cash, including the NOK5 dividend per Norwegian Finans Holding share to be distributed on 6 May to registered shareholders as of 27 April.

Its revised indicative offer of NOK100 per share excludes the dividend of NOK5, so implies an improvement of NOK10 per share compared to the initial offer.

The proposed offer is conditional on due diligence and acceptance from 90% of shareholders, with Nordax reserving the right to lower the acceptance threshold to 2/3.

"There is no certainty at this stage that any offer will be made or that the board of directors will recommend an offer," Norwegian Finans Holding said.

"The decision by the board of directors to grant access to due diligence does not imply a recommendation of the revised proposal."

Norwegian Finans Holding is the owner of Bank Norwegian AS, the online bank launched in 2007 as a support platform for Norwegian Air Shuttle's reward program.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-04-21 0324ET