Havard S. Abrahamsen takes up role as President and CEO of Oslo Bors
Håvard S. Abrahamsen joins the group from his position as a partner at PwC.
Håvard S. Abrahamsen has taken up the role as the new President and CEO of Oslo Børs and Oslo Børs VPS Holding, the Exchange announces today.
Mr Abrahamsen joins the group from his position as a partner at PwC. He has been a partner at PwC since 2002, and he was Managing Director of PwC Norway between 2010 and 2018. He has also been on PwC’s Global Board for the last five years. Before joining PwC, Mr Abrahamsen spent eight years at Oslo Børs, where his preceding role was Executive Vice President, Equity Markets.
Mr Abrahamsen holds a master’s degree in economics and business administration from BI Norwegian Business School and a master’s degree in accounting and auditing from the Norwegian School of Economics.
Bente A. Landsnes has been President and CEO of Oslo Børs and Oslo Børs VPS since January 2006. She wished to depart in accordance with her employment contract.
Mr Abrahamsen takes up the new role at a crucial moment for Oslo Bors as Euronext and Nasdaq are engulfed in a bidding race to acquire the share capital of Oslo Bors. Earlier in April, Euronext announced that it had received the recommendation by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) to the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, recommending that Euronext should be approved as a suitable owner of up to 100% of the capital of Oslo Børs VPS, as applied for, without ownership or other restrictions.
Euronext now awaits final approval from the Norwegian Ministry of Finance which is the last major condition to complete the transaction.
Nasdaq is not giving up either. On April 11, 2019, Nasdaq Inc (NASDAQ:NDAQ) announced that it, through an affiliated entity, had purchased 844,071 shares in Oslo Børs VPS. The purchases were made in line with the terms of the offer as outlined on February 4, 2019, as amended by announcements on March 4 and March 25, 2019. As a result of the purchases, which were made at NOK 158 per share, equal to the Offer Price, more than 37% of Oslo Børs VPS shares are owned by Nasdaq or are subject to pre-commitments to accept the Offer.
