Saint Gobain Or Regulatory News (COD)

11 Apr 2007 18:01

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain11 April 2007 press release April 11, 2007 Saint-Gobain Building Distribution Sector continues to expand with 3 acquisitions in Italy, Spain and Germany Saint-Gobain's Building Distribution Sector has just announced the acquisitionof Vemac (Italy), Discesur (Spain) and Schafer (Germany). - On a highly fragmented Italian market, Vemac is one of the country'slargest builders' merchants and a regional leader in Abruzzo. The business has10 branches, employs 187 people and recorded net sales of €66 million in 2006.Following the opening of a second La Plateforme du B(R)xxtiment store at thebeginning of 2007 in Milan, Saint-Gobain Building Distribution reinforces itspresence on the Italian market and now has a solid base on which to develop itsgeneralist distribution business. - Discesur is the number 2 distributor of tiles in Spain. With a largeshowroom (4,000 m2) in Madrid, the business recorded net sales of over €55million in 2006 and employs 101 people. Through this acquisition, Saint-GobainBuilding Distribution has bolstered its tiles business in Spain and at the sametime confirmed its position as European leader on this market. - Schafer, a business specialized in distributing roofing products inGermany, operates 14 branches and employs 130 people. Its net sales reached €50million in 2006. The geographical location of this acquisition will enableSaint-Gobain Building Distribution to extend its specialized "roofing" networkacross the whole of Germany. With these deals, the total number of acquisitions finalized by the Saint-GobainGroup in Building Distribution since the beginning of the year stands at 20,corresponding to full-year net sales of about €440 million. In 2006, Saint-Gobain's Building Distribution Sector posted net sales of €17.6billion. Its 67,000 employees operate a network of over 3,700 sales outlets in24 countries. It is currently Europe's leading distributor of building materialsand the world's number one tiles distributor. Its main brands are Point.P,Jewson, Raab Karcher, Dahl, Lapeyre la maison... and La Plateforme duBatiment. Investor Relations Department Florence TRIOU-TEIXEIRA Tel.: +33 1 47 62 45 19 Alexandre ETUY Tel.: +33 1 47 62 37 15 Fax: +33 1 47 62 50 62 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange