Intention of the Authority for the Financial Markets to impose fines on Dragados and HBG
Madrid / Rijswijk – The Authority for the Financial Markets ['Authority FM'] in the Netherlands believes that Grupo Dragados, SA ['Dragados'] and Hollandsche Beton Groep nv ['HBG'] acted contrary to the provision of Section 9b, subsection 1, of the Decree on the Supervision of the Securities Trade 1995 [Bte 1995] by having made a public announcement on 5 February 2002 concerning their expectation that agreement could be reached on an offer to be made by Dragados for the shares of HBG, whereas according to the Authority FM that expectation was already justified prior to that date.
In the opinion of the Authority FM, the alleged violation of the rules does not prevent the implementation and settlement of the offer which has since been made by Dragados for the shares of HBG, of which the acceptance period ends on Wednesday 10 April 2002, 15.00 hours, Dutch time. However, the Authority FM intends to impose an administrative penalty of €108,905.- on each of Dragados and HBG.
Dragados and HBG are of the opinion that they did not breach the above provision, so that there are no grounds for imposing the intended fines. If the Authority FM nevertheless goes ahead with the imposition of penalties, Dragados and HBG will initiate the applicable appeal procedures provided by law.
For further information:
HBG:
Arno Pronk, Manager Public Relations, telephone +31 70 3722121, e-mail apronk@hbg.nl
Grupo Dragados:
Carolina Cobos, International Media Relations, telephone +34 91 5832564, e-mail cch-dragados-grupo@dragados.com
