Banco Santander Central Hispano SA
02 August 2006
Pursuant to the provisions of article 82 of the Securities Market Act 24/1988,
dated 28th July, Elf Aquitaine and Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. hereby
notify to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission the following
MATERIAL FACT
In compliance with the partial Arbitral Decision rendered on 24th March 2006 in
the arbitral proceedings between Elf Aquitaine and Odival, S.A. (jointly, ELF),
and Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. and Riyal, S.A. (jointly, BS)(1), the
parties have today reached an agreement whereby:
a) ELF has recovered its indirect stake in Compania Espanola de Petroleos,
S.A: (CEPSA), which it had maintained to date through Somaen Dos, S.L.
(Somaen). The return of the CEPSA shares to ELF has taken place through a
reduction of capital of Somaen with the amortisation of all ELF's holdings
in the latter; and
b) ELF will acquire from BS 4.35% of the capital of CEPSA at a price of
approximately 4.54 Euros per share. The execution of this transaction is
subject to the obtaining of prior authorisation from the European
Commission.
Once the aforementioned operations have been completed, ELF's holding in CEPSA
will be approximately 48.8% of the latter's share capital.
On 7th July 2006, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) confirmed to
both parties that the operations described above do not involve the obligation
of launching a take-over bid for the shares of CEPSA.
Additionally, the parties have agreed to terminate all their agreements in force
to date with respect to CEPSA, as well as to render null and void as of today
the precautionary measures contained in the aforementioned partial Arbitral
Decision.
Once the operation referred to in paragraph b) above has been completed, the
parties will finally conclude the arbitral proceedings.
Madrd/Paris, 2nd August 2006.
(1) Notified to the National Securities Market Commission through separate
relevant facts dated 3rd April 2006, numbers 65500 and 65505.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.