New Investment

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain
18 March 2002


Saint-Gobain to launch first industrial investment in Russia:
new Isover glass wool manufacturing plant to start production 
in 2003 in the Moscow area.

Saint-Gobain Group's Insulation division has decided to invest in glass wool
manufacturing in Russia to support its strong sales growth in this region.

On the 10th of March 2002 Saint-Gobain Isover Yegorievsk, a Russian subsidiary
of Saint-Gobain Isover Oy Finland, has signed a contract with a former local
concrete element factory for the acquisition of the plant buildings in
Yegorievsk city (close to Moscow).

The acquired site will now be rebuilt as a modern glass wool plant The
investment and the renovation of the buildings start immediately. The site is
big enough for several insulation manufacturing lines and in the first phase we
will build one line with a capacity of 20.000 tons. The plant is scheduled to
start production of insulation wool in the summer of 2003 and will directly
employ over 100 persons in the first phase. The total cost of the investment is
estimated to be about 30 M. euros. The new Russian insulation plant will be
using Saint-Gobain TEL technology and the plant is built based on modern
environmental friendly technologies like electric melting. The plant will be
built by an international project team.

The reason behind this investment is the strong growth of ISOVER brand
insulation sales in Russia and other CIS (Community of Independent States)
markets like Ukraine, Belarus and Central Asia. Saint-Gobain Isover Oy started
sales operations in this territory already eight years ago and the business has
been growing strongly in recent years. ISOVER is the second largest insulation
brand in Russia today and the largest in the Baltics. There are today 60 people
working in Isover sales companies in Russia and the total sales force in this
region and the Baltics is over 100 persons.

This glass wool plant investment is the first industrial investment of the
Saint-Gobain Group in Russia.

March 18th, 2002.

Investor Relations Department
Tel: Florence TRIOU-TEIXEIRA   [phone] - 
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Tel: Claire MOSES              [phone] - 
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