CMS Hasche Sigle advises Sanitec on the flotation of Lecico Egypt and the associated global offering of shares and global depositary receipts (GDRs)

Following a global offering, Lecico Egypt S.A.E., a leading manufacturer of sanitary ceramics in the Middle East, is now listed on the London and Cairo stock exchanges. On 18 November the group announced that the bookbuilding procedure for the global offering had been successfully completed. In the course of the global offering a total of 8,273,443 ordinary shares and GDRs were offered for trading at an issue price of EGP 100 (USD 16.03), including 2,241,143 ordinary shares of Sanitec Corporation (indirectly held through Ceramic Holdings Middle East C.V.) and 3,200,000 new shares issued by Lecico. In addition Sanitec (through Ceramic Holdings Middle East C.V.) granted HSBC Bank, global coordinator and bookrunner, a greenshoe option of up to 1,241,016 additional shares.

Sanitec Corporation was advised on the global offering and the flotation of Lecico by a team of lawyers from CMS Hasche Sigle headed by Frankfurt partner Dr Andreas Zanner (stock exchange and capital markets). Further team members were Roman Strutynski, associate from CMS Hasche Sigle, Stuttgart, Dr Joachim Kaetzler, associate from CMS Hasche Sigle, Frankfurt, and Jan Peters, senior partner in the Amsterdam office of the Dutch CMS firm CMS Derks Star Busman. The advice covered all negotiations associated with the flotation such as the underwriting agreement and the securities lending agreement and examination of the offering circular.

The market capitalisation of Lecico is EGP 2 billion (USD 321m) on the basis of the issue price. The total volume of the global offering is around EGP 827m or USD 133m prior to exercise of the greenshoe option. If the greenshoe option is not exercised the free-float shareholdings will be approximately 46.4 % in which case 21.2 % would be held directly and indirectly by Sanitec. If the greenshoe option were exercised in full the free-float holdings would rise to 52.6 % and 15 % would be held directly and indirectly by Sanitec. In 1997 Sanitec acquired substantial holdings in the Lecico group and for this purpose established Ceramics Holdings Middle East C.V. with previous owners the Gargour family in the Netherlands and also purchased 75 % of the shares in Lecico Egypt and 93 % of the shares in Lecico Lebanon.

Lecico is a leading manufacturer of ceramic sanitary-ware in the Middle East and one of the biggest tile manufacturers in Egypt and the Lebanon. The Lecico group, which also operates in the United Kingdom and other European markets, exports a large proportion of its products to Europe, particularly to the United Kingdom and France. Sanitec Corporation, Helsinki, is a market leader in Europe in ceramic sanitary-ware and had a total turnover of around EUR 950m in 2003. The Sanitec group sells its products worldwide.


Contact CMS Hasche Sigle:
Dr Andreas Zanner
Tel.: +49 (0)69 / 71701-139
E-mail: [email protected]



Advisers:

Sanitec Corporation
CMS Hasche Sigle
Stock Trading and Capital Market Law
Dr Andreas Zanner, partner, Frankfurt
Roman Strutynski, Stuttgart
Dr Joachim Kaetzler, Frankfurt
CMS Derks Star Busman
Jan Peters, Amsterdam

Lecico Egypt S.A.E.:
Allen & Overy
Paul Koffel, London, et al.

HSBC Bank plc:
Linklaters
Philip Charlton, London, et al.


Background:

CMS Hasche Sigle is one of the leading German law firms with more than 350 lawyers. It covers the entire area of commercial law and provides legal advice to major German and international companies from a wide spectrum of industry.

CMS Hasche Sigle operates at all the major business centres. It has offices in Berlin, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Dresden, Brussels, Belgrade, Moscow, Prague and Shanghai.

The law firm is a founding partner of CMS, a European association of reputable law firms with more than 1,900 lawyers. In addition to CMS Hasche Sigle, the following firms are also members of the CMS association: CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni (Italy), CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo (Spain), CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre (France), CMS Cameron McKenna (UK), CMS Derks Star Busmann (the Netherlands), CMS von Erlach Klainguti Stettler Wille (Switzerland), CMS Lexcelis (Belgium) and CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz (Austria) with a total of 56 offices in 24 jurisdictions. This network enables CMS Hasche Sigle to offer integrated and extensive legal advice for cross-border projects.

Further information:
CMS Hasche Sigle Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten und Steuerberatern
Contact details/List of partners at www.cms-hs.com