Sucessfull launch of a dual-tranche eur 2.5 billion bond offering

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, whose long-term senior debt is rated BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s and Baa1 by Moody's, set yesterday the terms of its new benchmark bond issue denominated in Euros.

The dual-tranche issue was particularly well received by investors. Due to the volume and quality of investor demand (orderbook over EUR 6 Bn), the respective spreads at launch were set at the bottom of the initial price-guidance (respectively 28bp and 50bp over mid-swap rate on the 5 and 10 year tranche), and the final size of the bond issue was increased from initial €1.5Bn to €2.5Bn. This transaction underlines bond investors’ confidence in the credit quality of Saint-Gobain, whose last issuance on the Euro bond market was in May 2006.

Placement was made across a diversified basis of investors, as indicated below:

Array inserted here 

This bond issue is the largest ever done by Saint-Gobain. The proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt and for general corporate purposes.

ABN AMRO, Citigroup, Dresdner Kleinwort and SG CIB acted as lead managers for this bond issue.