Lafarge successfully completes cash tender offer for Lafarge North America

• 
• 15th May 2006
• Quarrying
 

Lafarge, the world leader in building materials, has today announced that it has successfully completed its cash tender offer for the 46.8% minority stake in Lafarge North America (NYSE & TSX: LAF) that it did not previously own. Lafarge now holds approximately 92.37% of the shares of Lafarge North America ("LNA").

"We are pleased with the swift and successful completion of our tender offer. This transaction will create value for our shareholders and will immediately be accretive to our earnings per share.

We will now work together with our North American teams to deliver the benefits of this transaction. We will streamline our processes, accelerate decision-making and pursue business and growth opportunities even more effectively in the attractive North American market", said Bruno Lafont, Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge.

The offer and withdrawal rights expired at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on Friday, May 12, 2006, and Lafarge has accepted for payment all shares tendered. According to the report of the depositary for the tender offer, Lafarge acquired approximately 34, 253, 627 shares of LNA common stock (including guaranteed deliveries) pursuant to the tender offer. In addition, Lafarge has accepted for payment all exchangeable preference shares of Lafarge Canada tendered pursuant to an offer for exchangeable preference shares that also expired at 12 midnight, New York City time, on Friday, May 12, 2006. According to the report of the depositary for the exchangeable preference shares tender offer, Lafarge acquired approximately 444,230 exchangeable preference shares (including guaranteed deliveries) pursuant to the tender offer. Lafarge thus acquired a total of 34,697,857 LNA common shares and Lafarge Canada exchangeable shares and holds approximately 92.37% of the LNA common shares and Lafarge Canada exchangeable preference shares taken together as a single class.

Lafarge expects to acquire the remaining shares of LNA not owned by Lafarge or its subsidiaries through a short-form merger. Following the merger, detailed instructions will be mailed outlining the steps that LNA shareholders who did not tender their shares must take in order to obtain payment. After completion of the merger, LNA will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lafarge.

LNA will deliver notices to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission requesting the deregistration of LNA shares and to the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange requesting the delisting of LNA shares following the completion of the short-form merger.

Contacts:

COMMUNICATIONS: 
Stéphanie Tessier
33-1 44-34-92-32 stephanie.tessier@lafarge.com

Louisa Pearce-Smith
33-1 44-34-18-18
louisa.pearce-smith@lafarge.com

Lucy Wadge
33-1 44-34-19-47
lucy.wadge@lafarge.com

INVESTOR RELATIONS:

Yvon Brind'Amour
33-1 44-34-11-26
yvon.brindamour@lafarge.com

Danièle Daouphars
33-1 44-34-11-51
daniele.daouphars@lafarge.com

Stéphanie Billet
33-1 44-34-94-59
stephanie.billet@lafarge.com