Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 20, 2005 - Ahold Finance U.S.A., LLC ("Ahold Finance") and Koninklijke Ahold N.V. ("Koninklijke Ahold" and together with Ahold Finance, the "Companies") today announced pricing for their successful solicitations of offers to sell up to EUR 1,000,000,000 equivalent of their notes that were launched on 11 October 2005 (the "Solicitations").
In total, Koninklijke Ahold has decreased its outstanding consolidated indebtedness of approximately EUR 1,000,000,000 equivalent for a total cash payment of EUR 935,000,000 equivalent (excluding accrued interest). As a consequence, Koninklijke Ahold will incur a one-time book loss under IFRS of approximately EUR 54,000,000. However, the Companies will also reduce their annual net interest expenses in the coming years relating to interest bearing debt with the decrease in 2005/06 expected to be approximately EUR 40,000,000.
The final results of the Solicitations are as follows: (please open the link below to view the table)
Settlement will be on Monday October 24, 2005.
BNP Paribas and JPMorgan acted as Lead Dealer Managers. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. acted as Tender Agent. Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs International acted as Co-Dealer Managers.
