Wienerberger Secures Liquidity Reserves up to 2016

Wienerberger AG, the world’s largest producer of bricks, has signed an early extension of a € 250m credit line that would have expired in 2013. These funds are now available to Wienerberger up to May 2016 for general corporate financing. The volume of the new credit line was oversubscribed by 71%, and the bank consortium under the leadership of two long-standing partners, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. and UniCredit Bank Austria AG, was expanded by two to a total of 15 banks.

Willy Van Riet, Chief Financial Officer of Wienerberger AG, on the conclusion of this contract: “Against the backdrop of the stricter equity requirements for risk-weighted assets that banks will face as of June 30, 2012, I see this as a major success and a strong vote of confidence by our financing partners. The previous bank consortium not only remained unchanged, but was joined by two further institutions.“ On the importance of this step for the implementation of the Group’s financing strategy, he commented: “Since the start of the economic crisis, we have reduced net debt significantly with various measures and issued a number of smaller bonds. We will therefore only need to refinance smaller tranches of debt each year up to 2018. In addition to our self-imposed financial discipline that is designed to protect our strong balance sheet structure with a maximum 2.5 year debt repayment period at the end of 2012, this recently committed credit line will play an important role in providing us with sufficient liquidity reserves in this highly seasonal business.“

The consortium includes the following banks: The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (coordinator), UniCredit Bank Austria AG (coordinator), Banque de l'Economie du Commerce et de la Monétique, BayernLB, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, Erste Group Bank AG, ING Bank NV, KBC Bank NV, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien AG, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich AG and SEB AG. The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. served as documentation agent and UniCredit Luxembourg S.A as facility agent for the transaction.