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[June 2003]
Koramic Reduces Wienerberger Holding to 10%
Koramic Building Products NV, the Belgian core shareholder of Wienerberger AG (Vienna, Austria), announced on 10 June 2003 its plans to withdraw from the stock exchange and to reduce its investment in Wienerberger to 10%. This will decrease the syndicated holding of Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Koramic in Wienerberger AG to approximately 37% and increase the percentage of 'free' non-syndicated shares to roughly 63%.
The syndicate agreement between Bank Austria Creditanstalt and Koramic Building Products will remain in effect and Koramic has declared its intention to remain a 10% minority shareholder of Wienerberger in the long term.
Koramic Building Products currently trades on the 'Euronext' exchange in Brussels, Belgium. Its majority shareholder is the Koceram Group, which is owned by the Belgian industrialist Christian Dumolin. Under the condition that at least 95% of Koramic shares can be gathered, Koramic shares will be exchanged for Wienerberger shares at the end of June. Koramic Building Products will then be delisted from the stock exchange.
This transaction will increase Wienerberger free float in a structured manner as intended by the core shareholders and the managing board and it will improve the liquidity of the Wienerberger share.
Particularly in Belgium, where Wienerberger holds leading market positions in bricks and roof tiles, the company will gain a large number of new shareholders.
ENDS