Wärtsilä Increases Shareholding In Wärtsilä India

Wärtsilä Corporation, holding at present 51% of the shares in Wärtsilä India Ltd., has made a public offer to the minority shareholders to acquire up to 49% of the shares in the Company. The total amount of the offer is about 16.5 million euro if all shares will be purchased. The offer is made at a premium of some 74% over current market price and 61% over the last 26 weeks' average price. The offer period ends on November 6, 2001. Wärtsilä Corporation has increased its shareholding in Wärtsilä India stepwise from the original level of 25%. The Group has normally 100% ownership in its local companies, and aims now at applying the same principle to Wärtsilä India. Wärtsilä India is listed on the stock exchanges in Mumbai and Delhi. The Company supplies power equipment and turnkey power plants to industries, utilities and Independent Power Producers. It is also a ship power supplier to shipyards and shipowners. The service activity of the Company is comprehensive. In year 2000 the total turnover was about 82 million euro and the number of employees close to 560. The Company has been profitable. Wärtsilä Corporation is the leading global ship power supplier and a major provider of solutions for decentralized power generation and of supporting services. In addition Wärtsilä operates a Nordic engineering steel company and manages holdings to support the development of its core business. The net sales of Wärtsilä in 2000 were EUR 2.7 billion and the number of employees are 10,500.