Saint Gobain Or Regulatory News (COD)

21 Dec 2006 17:12

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain21 December 2006 Press release December 21, 2006 Conversion of Saint-Gobain's "OCEANE" bonds into new shares Compagnie de Saint-Gobain announces the conversion, at a ratio of four newshares for one bond, of 99.42% of the 4,380,953 "OCEANE" bonds (bondsconvertible into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares of Compagniede Saint-Gobain, ISIN code FR0000188294) issued in February 2002. Based on the number of conversion requests received as of the December 20, 2006deadline, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain will issue 17.4 million new shares, a 4.96%increase in the number of shares outstanding. The conversion of these 4,355,403 "OCEANE" bonds will result in an equityincrease of €914.6 million. Consequently, the Group's net debt will be reducedby the same amount. The increase in share capital will be legally recorded in the accounts onDecember 31, 2006 and the new shares will be issued, delivered and listed onJanuary 2, 2007. As no interest will be paid for the period from January 1, 2006 to January 1,2007 to holders of bonds presented for exchange, there will be a resulting €24million reduction in financial expenses in the Saint-Gobain Group's accounts for2006. The new shares issued as a result of the bond conversions will carry dividendrights as of January 1, 2006 and will therefore entitle the holder to the entiredividend due for the 2006 financial year. The 25,550 "OCEANE" bonds not presented for conversion will be redeemed in cashat their par value on January 2, 2007, i.e. €210 per bond, with an interestpayment made at the same date in the amount of €5.5125 per bond. Investor Relations Department Mrs Florence TRIOU-TEIXEIRA Tel.: +33 1 47 62 45 19Mr Alexandre ETUY Tel.: +33 1 47 62 37 15 Fax.: +33 1 47 62 5062 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange