Saint-Gobain Acquires Vietnamese Joint Venture

Paris, France, 08 November 2007 -- Saint-Gobain Gypsum (the construction products sector of Saint-Gobain) announces the acquisition of all the stockholder’s equity of the Vietnamese company Vinh Tuong Joint Venture, created at the beginning of 2007 and owned by Vinh Tuong Corporation, Universal Cement (Taiwan), and Compact Resources (Singapore).

The company, Vinh Tuong Joint Venture, has a manufacturing plant near Ho Chi Minh City, which can produce up to 9 million square meters of plasterboard.

It currently employs 84 employees.

Vietnam benefits from the high growth of the building market, particularly for plasterboard, whose use has been recently introduced in this country.

This acquisition will enable Saint-Gobain Gypsum -– which has been exporting to Vietnam via its Thai company for more than 10 years -– to consolidate its strong position in the Vietnamese market and to enhance customer service. Moreover, it constitutes the first industrial site of the Group in Vietnam, representing a platform for development of other activities of the Group, in particular within the construction products sector.

This acquisition is in line with the strategy to develop the construction products sector in emerging countries. During the last 12 months, companies within the sector have invested in Colombia (acquisition of FiberGlass in insulation), in the United Arab Emirates (construction of a plasterboard plant in Abu Dhabi), in Argentina (acquisition of Iggam, specializing in industrial mortars and plaster), in South Africa (Owens Corning South Africa in insulation – TAC and Tylon leading manufacturers of industrial mortars), and in Turkey (acquisition of Izocam in insulation and a mortar production plant in Ankara).

With 45,000 employees worldwide and 250 consolidated companies, the construction products sector of Saint-Gobain is a leader in all its businesses: insulation (Isover), gypsum (Placo, Gyproc, Rigips), exterior products (CertainTeed), industrial mortars (Weber), and pipe (PAM). In 2006, it had consolidated sales of EUR 10.9 billion, representing 24% of the Saint-Gobain Group’s overall sales.