FROSTY RESPONSE. Sweden’s Nordax Bank may have to raise the temperature on its bid for Oslo-listed Norwegian Finans. The would-be buyer on Thursday launched a $2.1 billion offer for the owner of Bank Norwegian. Private equity group Nordic Capital and Finnish insurer Sampo jointly control the bidder, and together also own 23% of the target. Nordax Chief Executive Jacob Lundblad probably hopes to cross-sell the two companies’ products to their customers and gain an underwriting edge by pooling data. The question is whether he’ll reach the required threshold of 50.1% of Norwegian Finans shares. Given Nordic and Sampo’s support, Lundblad effectively needs just another 27%. But the shares on Thursday soared above 100 Norwegian crowns, well above Nordax’s offer of 95 crowns per share. The bid values the target at 1.7 times 2021 tangible book value, using Refinitiv data. Norwegian Finans traded at over 2 times in January 2020. Investors’ cool reception may force a rethink. (By Liam Proud)