Helvetia announces Public Tender Offer for Nationale Suisse

On July 7, 2014, Helvetia Holding AG (Helvetia) published the pre-announcement for a public tender offer for all publicly held shares of Schweizerische National-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft AG, Basel (Nationale Suisse). The offer price consists in CHF 52 in cash and 0.0680 Helvetia shares per Nationale Suisse share. On the basis of the closing price as of July 4, 2014, the offer values Nationale Suisse at CHF 80 per share and CHF 1.764 billion in the aggregate. The transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including an acceptance threshold of 66.67% of all Nationale Suisse shares. The offer prospectus will be published on or around August 8, 2014.

Nationale Suisse is being advised by Lenz & Staehelin in this transaction. The team is led by Corporate Partner Hans-Jakob Diem and includes Partners Tino Gaberthüel (Corporate), Astrid Waser (Antitrust) and Pascal Hinny (Tax) and Associates Simone Ehrsam, Andreas Hinsen and Iliana Djagova (all Corporate), Roman Kern (Antitrust), Pascal Genoud (Financing) and Stephan Brandner (Tax).