About Groupe Bruxelles Lambert

Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL or the Company) is a holding company listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange since 15 October 1956. GBL strives to stimulate and promote the growth of a valuable and balanced portfolio of industrial investments, focusing on a small number of major companies, operating in a diversified range of sectors, in which it is able to play its role as a strategic shareholder. The Company’s portfolio consists of four participations, namely Bertelsmann, Total, Suez and Imerys. TotalFina Elf formed by the successive consolidations of the Total, PetroFina and Elf Aquitaine groups, TotalFinaElf is a global oil and gas group and a major player in the chemicals sector. Activities TotalFina Elf is one of the major integrated oil companies. Its activities are based in more than 100 countries and cover the entire oil industry chain, from upstream - exploration, development and production of oil and gas – to downstream - refining and distribution of oil products and international trading of crude oil and refined oil products. TotalFina Elf is also an important operator in the chemicals industry. Upstream, TotalFina Elf’s hydrocarbon reserves amount to some 11.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Present in the liquefied natural gas industry, TotalFina Elf is also expanding its activities to related market segments such as gas distribution and electricity generation. Downstream, the group has a refining capacity of 2.3 million barrels a day and sales of 3.7 million barrels a day of refined products. TotalFinaElf has interests in 27 refineries and operates a network of some 16,700 service stations under the Total, Fina and Elf brands, primarily in Europe. TotalFina Elf’s chemical interests include not only petrochemicals and long-chain polymers, activities typical of major integrated oil companies, but also intermediary chemical products and performance polymers, as well as a speciality chemical products sector focusing on processing technologies for rubber and coating products. Bertelsmann: Bertelsmann is a media and entertainment company. Its core business is the creation of first-class media content. The Company strives to inspire people’s daily lives all over the world with its products and services. Activities Bertelsmann’s core business is the creation of first-class media content: Bertelsmann includes RTL Group, Europe, as well as a major book publishing group, Random House, with some 250 publishing imprints (Alfred A. Knopf, Bantam, Siedler Verlag, Goldmann). Gruner + Jahr, (Stern, GEO, Capital, Femme Actuelle, Family Circle, Parents), Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) with its roughly 200 labels (RCA, Arista, Jive, J Records) and artists such as Alicia Keys, Dido and Pink, as well as the special-information publisher BertelsmannSpringer also stand for creativity and powerful brands. Bertelsmann’s direct-to-customer businesses are bundled in DirectGroup: book and music clubs with more than 40 million members all over the world. The Arvato corporate division bundles the group’s media services, which include the expanding units Arvato Logistics Services and Arvato Direct Services (service centers, distribution, customer relationship management), along with state-of-the-art printers, storage media production and comprehensive IT-services. Suez Suez is an international industrial and services group, active in sustainable development and a provider of innovative Energy (electricity-gas) and Environment (water-waste) solutions for industrial and individual clients as well as local communities. Suez has taken advantage of the wider scope of deregulation and of outsourcing. The Energy business line built on Tractebel, is developing its activities in production (including cogeneration), trading, transport, distribution of gas and electricity, and in energy and industrial services (engineering, installation, maintenance and operation, notably of heatgenerating sites and networks). The Environment business line is made-up of water and waste services respectively through the subsidiaries Ondeo and Sita. In the water sector, the group is engaged in water management and treatment. In waste management activities, Suez operates in the management (collection, sorting, recycling, treatment, recovery and storage) of all types of industrial and household waste. Imerys Imerys is a minerals processing firm. Imerys operates in four business segments: Speciality Minerals, Pigments for Paper, Building Materials and Refractories & Abrasives. From 1 January 2003, the Speciality Minerals branch consolidates the activities of the Performance Minerals (Pigments & Additives branch) and those of the former Ceramics & Speciality Products. Other investments In addition to its four strategic investments, GBL also holds interests that are more modest in terms of the group’s portfolio, including the following: Rhodia GBL owns a 5.3% interest in Rhodia, a provider of speciality chemicals. PAI Europe III Investors in PAI Europe III are essentially insurance companies, pension funds, banks and private investors from Europe, the United States and Asia. In 2001, GBL made an undertaking to invest EUR 40 million in the PAI Europe III fund. In 2002, PAI Europe III realised five investments namely: Antargaz, Yoplait, Panzani-Lustucru, Elis and Provimi. These investments in 2001: United Biscuits, Mivisa and LD Com. Private Equity Partners Europe (PEP) In 2001, GBL made an undertaking to invest EUR 50 million in PEP, a private equity fund expected to top EUR 500 million, set in place by Power Corporation of Canada. The fund concentrates on investments in medium-sized enterprises, mostly in French-speaking Europe. Viventures 2 Launched in 2000 in the wake of Viventures 1, created in 1998, Viventures 2 invests in start-ups in the communications technologies, telecoms and Internet sectors, with a strong business-to-business orientation.