3rd Aug 2006 07:00
Banco Santander Central Hispano SA02 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. herebynotify to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission the following MATERIAL FACT In compliance with the partial Arbitral Decision rendered on 24th March 2006 inthe 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), theparties 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 CEPSAwill be approximately 48.8% of the latter's share capital. On 7th July 2006, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) confirmed toboth parties that the operations described above do not involve the obligationof launching a take-over bid for the shares of CEPSA. Additionally, the parties have agreed to terminate all their agreements in forceto date with respect to CEPSA, as well as to render null and void as of todaythe precautionary measures contained in the aforementioned partial ArbitralDecision. Once the operation referred to in paragraph b) above has been completed, theparties will finally conclude the arbitral proceedings. Madrd/Paris, 2nd August 2006. (1) Notified to the National Securities Market Commission through separaterelevant facts dated 3rd April 2006, numbers 65500 and 65505. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Banco Santander