Gusbourne Regulatory News (GUS)

17 May 2005 16:00

GUS PLC17 May 2005 Not for release, publication or distribution in, or into the United States,Canada, Australia or Japan 17 May 2005 GUS plc Offer of remaining stake in Lewis Group GUS plc, the retail and business services group, today announces its intentionto dispose of its entire remaining interest in its South African business, LewisGroup Limited ("Lewis") of 50,000,001 Lewis shares, comprising 50% of the issuedshare capital of Lewis (the "Offering"). The Offering excludes the four millionLewis shares which will be transferred to the Lewis Employee Share IncentiveTrust. The Offering will be implemented through a bookbuilding procedurecommencing today and is expected to close on or before the close of business on20 May 2005. The initial public offering of Lewis was successfully completed on 4 October2004 as part of GUS' strategy to release value for its shareholders, whileenhancing the development opportunities for Lewis. The Board of GUS believesthat now is the appropriate time to divest its remaining shareholding in Lewisin line with this strategy. The proceeds from the sale will be used by GUS to reduce debt. Lewis will notreceive any of the proceeds from the Offering. John Peace, Group Chief Executive of GUS, commented: "The plan to sell our remaining stake in Lewis is another important step inreshaping the GUS portfolio. The operational and financial performance of Lewisis strong. With its excellent management team, we believe it is well positionedfor further growth." Enquiries GUS David Tyler Finance Director 020 74950070Fay Dodds Director of Investor Relations Finsbury Rupert Younger 020 7251 3801Rollo Head Notes to editors Founded in 1934, the Lewis group operates in Southern Africa selling furniture,household and electrical goods, mainly on credit, together with associatedfinancial products. It trades under the 'Lewis' brand in 400 furniture stores,under the 'Best Electric' brand in 58 specialist electrical stores and under the'Lifestyle Living' brand in 17 more up-market furniture and electronic goodsstores. The 'Lewis' brand is the largest single brand by number of stores in theretail furniture industry in South Africa. Global co-ordinator and sole bookrunner: UBSCo-lead managers: Investec and JP Morgan Important notes This announcement has been issued by GUS plc and is the sole responsibility ofGUS. UBS South Africa (Proprietary) Limited ("UBS"), Investec Bank Limited("Investec") and JP Morgan Securities Limited ("JP Morgan") are actingexclusively for GUS and no one else in connection with the Offering and will notbe responsible to anyone other than GUS for providing the protections affordedto clients of UBS, Investec and JP Morgan nor for providing any advice inrelation to the Offering or any other matters referred to in this announcement. This announcement is for information purposes and does not constitute an offerof, or an invitation by or on behalf of GUS plc, Lewis, UBS, Investec or JPMorgan to subscribe for or purchase any shares and may not be used for thepurpose of an offer to, or a solicitation by, anyone in any jurisdiction or inany circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is not authorised or isunlawful. This announcement and the Offering do not constitute an offer in orfrom the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or any other jurisdiction wherethe dissemination of this announcement or the making of the offer may be illegalor fails to conform to the laws of such jurisdiction. The announcement is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the UnitedKingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(1) of theUnited Kingdom Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion)Order 2001 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth entities, and other persons towhom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(1) of the Order(all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The offershares have not been offered or sold nor will they be offered or sold incircumstances which have resulted or will result in an offer to the public inthe United Kingdom within the meaning of the United Kingdom Public Offers ofSecurities Regulations 1995 and are only available to, and any invitation, offeror agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire any offer shares willbe engaged in only with, relevant persons and where all applicable provisions ofthe United Kingdom Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ("FSMA") have beencomplied with. Any person in the United Kingdom who is not a relevant personshould not act or rely on this announcement or any of its contents. In additionno person may communicate or cause to be communicated any invitation orinducement to engage in investment activity (within the meaning of section 21 ofFSMA) received by it in connection with the issue or sale of any offer sharesexcept in circumstances in which section 21(1) of FSMA does not apply. The offer shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the UnitedStates Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or anysecurities laws of any state of the United States, and such shares are not andmay not be offered or sold within the United States. The offer shares may not, directly or indirectly, be offered, sold, transferredto or delivered in the Netherlands, whether at their initial distribution or atany time thereafter, and neither this announcement nor any other document inrespect of the Offering may be distributed or circulated in the Netherlands,other than to individuals or legal entities who or which trade or invest insecurities in the conduct of their profession or trade (which includes banks,investment institutions, securities intermediaries, insurance companies, pensionfunds, other institutional investors and treasury departments and financecompanies of large enterprises). This announcement does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of Article652a of the Swiss Code of Obligations of March 30, 1911. Accordingly, the offershares may not be offered or distributed in or from Switzerland on the basis ofa "public solicitation" and neither this announcement nor any offering materialrelating to the offer shares may be distributed in connection with any offer ordistribution which may constitute such a solicitation. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange