Champeau expands further with AXA Private Equity Paris, Monday February 9, 2004

AXA Private Equity is once again partnering Champeau—France’s leading supplier (with a 10% market share) of wood roof truss systems, mainly used for individual house construction—in a further expansion in France. Champeau has recently acquired Gau, a local sector leader in the Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon regions.

AXA Private Equity thus confirms its active role in realising the build-up strategy announced 15 months ago in September 2002, when Champeau group was the subject of an LMBO.

The Gau group, based in Castres (81), has three production sites (Castres, Carcassonne and Tavel) and makes sales of approximately €13 million. The group enjoys an excellent reputation in its region, thanks to its high-quality products and service.

Mr Max Gau is staying on after the merger as Gau’s CEO and also becomes a major shareholder in the holding company W.Tech.Fi—created specifically for the Champeau LMBO—where he will have coordinating operational duties.

This deal will enable the W.Tech.Fi group—which now has 12 production sites—to make annual sales in excess of € 60 million, produce over 20,000 roof trusses annually and post EBITDA of € 8 million.

For further information: www.champeau.fr

Deal participants

AXA Private Equity (Eric Neuplanche, Thibault Basquin)

AXA Private Equity’s advisors:

• Legal advisors: Cabinet NomoS (Jean-François Pourdieu, Thibault Caharel) and Cabinet Fidal (René Abelard)
• Accounting due diligence: RSM Salustro-Reydel (Patrick Iweins, Damien Bourg)
• Tax due diligence: Hoche (Guilhem Deltour)

CIC (Françoise Lapierre, Marc Baraduc)

CIC’s advisors:

• Simmons & Simmons (Colin Millar)