Norway's Tandberg gets private equity bid

By Ole Petter Skonnord

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian video conference systems group Tandberg ASA, a $2 billion company, has been approached by a private equity player interested in preliminary talks on a potential takeover offer, Tandberg said.

Analysts said the market saw a bid price at around 130-140 Norwegian crowns a share as fair value.

The company's stock price jumped on the news of the private equity approach, gaining 14.54 percent to 112.25 crowns by 0830 GMT, valuing the company at 12.8 billion crowns ($2.40 billion).

"The discussions are at an early stage and there can be no certainty that an offer will be made," Tandberg said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Tandberg, which dominates the video conference systems market alongside its U.S. rival Polycom, said it engaged JP Morgan as financial adviser. "Any further announcement will be made when appropriate," Tandberg said.

"We want to maximize shareholder value," Chief Executive Officer Fredrik Halvorsenhe told Reuters, declining to give any further details on the bidder.

"As we say in the statement, we will communicate something when we have something to say. We do not want to speculate further than what we have in the statement," he added.

"It is difficult to believe that the board would recommend a sale under 140 crowns," said Handelsbanken analyst Anita Huun, adding the board had to take strategic issues into account.

She said a counter-bid could not be ruled out, mentioning Hewlett Packard or Cisco as possible suitors.

Carnegie analyst Espen Torgersen saw a similar value.

"In the market it is easy to argue for fair value of 130-140 crowns and given the way the company has been performing lately this would be more correct than the share price today," he said.

Tandberg in mid-July reported a 24 percent rise in operating profit for the second quarter to $41.2 million, roughly matching expectations. Second-quarter revenues grew 35.5 percent to $194.9 million, at the top end of estimates in a Reuters poll.

The bid news has pushed the stock back near end-2007 levels after it fell through most of the first quarter in a turbulent equity market, before recovering in the second quarter.

The stock now trades at about 19 times estimated 2008 earnings, according to Reuters Estimates. Polycom, whose second-quarter earnings missed Wall street expectations, trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.2.

Tandberg's biggest shareholder as of the end of May, with just under 9 percent of the stock, is Norway's social insurance fund Folketrygdfondet.

Second biggest, with a 7 percent stake, is JP Morgan Chase Bank's Oppenheimer fund, according to Tandberg. (Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord, John Acher and Patrick Lannin; Editing by David Cowell)