Marazzi Group leaves Piazza Affari

Marazzi Group is preparing to leave the Italian stock market, Piazza Affari, by launching a total voluntary public purchase offer.
The public purchase offer, conducted via a newly formed company called Fintiles, is promoted at a price of 7.15 euro per share and includes a 30% premium relative to the weighted averages of the Group's official share prices in both the last month and the last 3 months, as well as a 14% premium relative to the official price of the day preceding the offer (12 May). The price remains below 10.25 euro, the price at which the share made its debut on Piazza Affari in February 2006, but is 30% higher than the share's stock market results of the last 3 months.

The offering company Fintiles is controlled 51% by Finceramica Spa, which in turn is controlled through a 50.5% shareholding by Filippo Marazzi. The remaining 49% shareholding in Fintiles is held by the Luxembourg company LuxELIT, in turn controlled by the Permira and Private Equity Partners funds, the two funds that acquired the company's capital in 2004 with a view to fostering its international development.

The strategies behind the delisting decision are part of an extensive consolidation and expansion project that the Group has planned in the medium and long term and which will require very substantial investments.
The project, which Filippo Marazzi believes can be achieved more easily with a more concentrated shareholder structure, will involve intense efforts to reinforce the structure in emerging countries, rationalisation plans and penetration of synergic and complementary markets.