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[January 2006]
RHI AG Sells Heraklith
RHI AG (Vienna, Austria) and two subsidiaries of Knauf Group signed a contract on 13 January 2006 to sell the Heraklith Group. The transfer will be effective retroactive to 1 January 2006.
A purchase price of 230 million euro debt free has been agreed. The enforcement of the contracts is subject to several implied conditions and the approval of the competent authorities and antitrust commissions. The agreed price reflects the much better than expected earnings development of the Heraklith Group in 2005. With the finalisation of the sale, RHI will account a disposal gain (book profit) of around 60 million euro in the financial year 2006.
RHI says it can now successfully finalise the restructuring of the group portfolio started in 2002 and will in future focus solely on the core business, refractories, and thus on the expansion of RHI Refractories' leading market position world-wide.
With the transaction, RHI reduces its net liabilities to financial institutions from about 650 million euro to below 430 million euro. At the beginning of restructuring in 2002 net liabilities to financial institutions had amounted to around 1 billion euro.
RHI said it would make forceful use of the gained financial scope and expand the world-wide refractories business. There were, it concluded, good chances in the raw material and business area to achieve sustained success in RHI Refractories' market position and earnings strength within the next few years.
www.rhi-ag.com
ENDS