Saint Gobain Or Regulatory News (COD)

8 Dec 2005 13:08

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain08 December 2005 Not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in, into orfrom Australia or Canada 8 December 2005 Compagnie de Saint-Gobain Recommended Offer for BPB plc Compulsory Acquisition of Outstanding BPB Shares and Delisting of BPB Saint-Gobain announces that the Offeror, as of 1.00p.m. on 5 December 2005, hasacquired or agreed to acquire more than 90 per cent. of the BPB Shares to whichthe Recommended Offer relates and, therefore, will today implement theprocedures set out in sections 428 to 430F of the Companies Act to acquirecompulsorily those BPB Shares for which it has not received acceptances of theRecommended Offer by 19 January 2006. After the compulsory acquisition procedureis complete, the Recommended Offer will no longer be capable of acceptance. BPB announced yesterday that it had applied to the FSA for the cancellation ofBPB's listing on the Official List of the FSA and to the London Stock Exchangefor the cancellation of the admission to trading of BPB Shares on the LondonStock Exchange's market for listed securities. The FSA has now confirmed,subject to final approval, that cancellation of listing and admission to tradingwill take effect from 10 January 2006. Enquiries Saint-Gobain (for analysts and investors)Florence Triou-Teixeira, Head of IR Tel: +33 1 47 62 45 19Alexandre Etuy, Deputy Head of IR Tel: +33 1 47 62 37 15 BNP Paribas (joint financial adviser to Saint-Gobain)Thierry Dormeuil Tel: +33 1 42 98 1234Oliver Ellingham Tel: +44 20 7595 2000 UBS Investment Bank (joint financial adviser and broker to Saint-Gobain)Charles-Henri Le Bret Tel: +33 1 48 88 3030Liam Beere Tel: +44 20 7567 8000 Brunswick (PR adviser to Saint-Gobain)John Sunnucks Tel: +44 20 7404 5959Sophie Fitton Tel: +44 20 7404 5959 Notes Copies of the Recommended Offer Document and the New Form of Acceptance areavailable for collection (during normal business hours) from Capita Registrarsat PO Box 166, The Registry, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4TH. Further information on Saint-Gobain is available on Saint-Gobain's websitewww.saint-gobain.com Terms used in this announcement shall have the meaning given to them in theRecommended Offer Document. The Recommended Offer in the United States is made solely by the Offeror andneither BNP Paribas, UBS nor any of their respective affiliates is making theOffer into the United States. The Saint-Gobain Directors and the Offeror Directors accept responsibility forthe information contained in this announcement. To the best of the knowledge andbelief of the Saint-Gobain Directors and the Offeror Directors (who have takenall reasonable care to ensure that such is the case), the information containedin this announcement for which they are responsible is in accordance with thefacts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of suchinformation. BNP Paribas and UBS are acting exclusively for Saint-Gobain and the Offeror inconnection with the Recommended Offer and no one else, and will not beresponsible to anyone other than Saint-Gobain and the Offeror for providing theprotections afforded to respective clients of BNP Paribas and UBS nor forproviding advice in relation to the Recommended Offer or any other matterreferred to herein. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or an invitation topurchase any securities or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange