EXPAN has been acquired by international building materials company

Press Release

EXPAN, Denmark’s largest producer of wall, facáde and deck elements in lightweight concrete and ordinary concrete has been acquired by CRH Denmark A/S, and will therefore become part of the Irish based international building materials company, CRH. The transaction is expected to take effect on July 31, 2007.

Since 2004 EXPAN has been owned by the Nordic private equity fund Procuritas, together with management, and will in the future be part of CRH Denmark A/S as an independent entity along with Betonelement A/S, Dalton Betonelementer A/S, Betongruppen RBR A/S og Thermisol A/S.

“EXPAN – a market leader in the production of lightweight concrete elements – has developed positively during the last four years. CRH is already active in this market segment in Denmark and other European countries, but EXPAN’s strong development has made it attractive for CRH to enter thes market segment more forcefully in Denmark.” says Claus Bering, CEO of CRH Denmark.

Also EXPAN has positive expectations about the new owner:

“We have known for some time that EXPAN could be sold, so we are happy that our new ownership structure has been finally determined. We look forward to cooperating with our new owner and to focussing 100% on our core business. Through the CRH Group we will influence the development of lightweight concrete elements all over Europe” states Poul Kirkegaard, CEO of EXPAN.

In 2006, EXPAN had 730 employees on seven sites in Denmark and 90 employees on its site in Germany.

Revenues were DKK800mm and EBIT was DKK45mm.

CRH is an international conglomerate that produces and sells building materials, primarily in Europe and the US. Globally the CRH Group employs about 80.000 people in 2600 factories in 27 countries. In 2006, CRH had revenues of DKK140bn and a pre-tax profit of DKK12bn.

The agreement between EXPAN and CRH Denmark is dependent on final approval from the German competition authorities.

SEB Enskilda Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to Procuritas and other shareholders of EXPAN.

For more information, please contact:

CEO, CRH Denmark A/S, Claus Bering on +45 40 57 56 55,
CEO,EXPAN A/S, Poul Kirkegaard on +45 20 47 80 82 or
Senior Partner, Procuritas, Lars Krogsgaard on +45 28 44 91 71.

More information on CRH can also be found on: www.crh.com.