PARIS, France, Sept. 20, 2002 -- Vivendi Environnement announced the pricing of a secondary offering of 8,595,875 shares of common stock of Philadelphia Suburban Corp. at $18.25 per share. Most of the PSC shares are held by Vivendi Environnement's water division, Vivendi Water.
Vivendi Water has also offered the underwriters an option to purchase up to 1,289,381 additional PSC shares to cover over-allotments for a period of 30 days from the date of pricing.
In addition, Philadelphia Suburban Corp. has agreed to repurchase, at the price of the offering, 2,500,000 PSC shares held by Vivendi Water after the closing of the secondary offering, less any shares purchased by the underwriters pursuant to the exercise of their 30-day over-allotment option.
The overall transaction which represented about 17% of PSC shares is valued at approximately $200 million. Vivendi Environnement and Vivendi Water will no longer hold any shares of Philadelphia Suburban Corporation after the completion of these transactions.
These transactions further Vivendi Environnement's announced strategy to divest non-core assets and focus on its water-wastewater equipment and services businesses and consumer and commercial businesses.
Furthermore, this sale is consistent with previous disposals of minority positions made by Vivendi Environnement. Upon completion of this transaction and after the closing of the two other divestitures recently announced by U.S. Filter Corporation, a subsidiary of Vivendi Water, the total year-to-date proceeds from the divestiture of non-core assets by Vivendi Environnement will exceed E1.3 billion.
The managers of the underwriting syndicate for the offering are Deutsche Bank Securities and UBS Warburg. For copies of the prospectus for these securities please contact Deutsche Bank Securities, 1 South Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, (410) 895-2080 or UBS Warburg, 299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171, (212) 821-3000.
Vivendi Environnement is the world leader in environmental services. The company has operations all around the world and provides tailored solutions to meet the needs of industrial and municipal customers in four complementary segments: water, waste, energy and passenger transportation. Vivendi Environnement recorded revenue of E29.1 billion in 2001.
This announcement shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any common stock, which is being made only pursuant to the prospectus relating to the offering, copies of which may be obtained from the underwriters.
Press release also available on http://vivendienvironnement-finance.com
Source: Vivendi Environnement
