15 January 2009: Oslo, Norway, 15 January 2009 - The Board of Directors of NorDiag ASA (`NorDiag` or the `Company`) has today approved the allotment of options to key persons, and certain primary insiders have agreed to subscribe for warrants. The allotment of options is made in accordance with the resolution by the General Meeting, which authorized the Board of Directors to allocate new options to employees and key persons, as the value of previously issued options will be significantly reduced as a result of the substantial diluting effect from the forthcoming rights issue.

Options to key persons
The General Meeting resolved on 19 December 2008 that the Board of Directors may neutralise the diluting effect of the forthcoming rights issue by issuing up to 12,252,500 options to the Company`s management, employees, key personnel, and to the new future Chairman of the Board Robert V. Ahlgren. Furthermore, the General Meeting approved that the option price (strike) in connection with the issue of the options may be set equal to the subscription price in the rights issue (NOK 0.50), even if such price may deviate from the market price.

On basis of the resolution by the General Meeting, the Board of Directors has resolved that, on the condition and with effect from such date that the rights issue is completed, such number of options shall be issued to existing option holders that is sufficient and necessary to neutralise the diluting effect of the rights issue. The final amount of new options will depend on the number of new shares issued in the rights issue. Further, on the condition and with effect from such date that the rights issue is completed, the strike price of the existing options is set at NOK 0.50, which also shall be the strike price of the new options. Reference is made to announcement made on 23 June 2008 regarding the allotment of options to key persons.

The Board of Directors has also decided that on the condition and with effect from such date that the rights issue is completed, Robert V. Ahlgren is granted 100,000 options at a strike price set at NOK 0.50.

Issue of warrants to employees - primary insiders
On 19 December 2008, General Meeting resolved to issue warrants to subscribe for shares in the Company (`Class C Warrants`) to the employees of the Company and its subsidiaries (the `NorDiag Group`). The issuance is made in relation to a renegotiation of salary terms with an aim to reduce the salary in a period of 12 months by at least 5%. For each NOK 10,000 the employee is willing to reduce his or her fixed gross annual salary in a 12 months period, 40,000 Class C Warrants may be subscribed for and will be allotted. Each Class C Warrants gives a right to require issued one new share in the company, each with a nominal value of NOK 0.10, at a subscription price of NOK 0.50. The Class C Warrants may be exercised on or prior to 31 December 2011, provided, however, that exercise may only take place in the periods 15-30 June and/or 15-31 December.

The subscription period runs parallel with the subscription period in the rights issue. However, in addition to certain other employees of the NorDiag Group, the following primary insiders have agreed to subscribe for Class C Warrants:

  * Mårten Wigstøl:      1,880,000 Class C Warrants
  * Erik Hornes:        600,000 Class C Warrants
  * Dagfinn Øgreid:     800,000 Class C Warrants
  * Nancy Murphy:          400,000 Class C Warrants

Contact:    
CEO Mårten Wigstøl    
Phone: +47 911 65775 or
morten.wigstol@nordiag.com

CFO Tone Kvåle Phone:
+ 47 915 19576 or
tone.kvaale@nordiag.com

About NorDiag:
NorDiag is a biotechnology company developing, manufacturing and marketing automated solutions, instruments and tests, for diagnostic of infectious diseases and cancer. The Company`s core competence is isolation of bacterial and human DNA from difficult clinical samples, and the Company has established a solid market share in the Scandinavian market for sexually transmitted infections. The company has similar applications for Tuberculosis and MRSA. An application for respiratory pathogens is under development. NorDiag is also developing a test that shall contribute to early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. NorDiag was founded in 2003 and has its headquarters in Oslo - Norway. The Company has offices and laboratories in Bergen - Norway, Stockholm - Sweden and West Chester (PA) - USA. The group has 39 employees. NorDiag is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange with the ticker NORD. For further information - www.nordiag.com

Read the notice in Norwegian here