Press release on the Supervisory Board meeting of 10 January 2005
11.01.2005

OIAG Supervisory Board approves
sale of VA TECH shareholding

Yesterday’s meeting of the Supervisory Board of OIAG approved the sale of the company’s 14.7% shareholding in VA TECH. As a result of this decision, a total of 2,250,000 VA Technologie AG shares will be sold for a price of at least EUR 55 per share under the terms of the voluntary public takeover offer made by Siemens Österreich AG.

“Accepting the offer made by Siemens Austria will enable us to meet the objectives of our privatisation mandate to a large extent. Siemens is a dependable core shareholder who will be able to ensure a sustained increase in the value of VA Technologies, thus ensuring the future of the company in the long term,” explains OIAG Managing Board spokesman Peter Michaelis. “Today Siemens Austria is not only already VA TECH’s largest shareholder, but is also one of the company’s biggest competitors. Due to the dual role played by Siemens, the failure of this takeover would have had a negative impact on the company and its customer relations, and as a consequence on its shareholders, too. On the other hand, due to the success of this public takeover offer, VA TECH now stands to gain significantly in important growth markets due to Siemens’ global presence.”

Siemens’ financial muscle and first-rate credit rating were important factors in this decision, as these will enable the company to exploit VA TECH's tremendous growth potential faster and more effectively. Other important considerations in-cluded the guarantees contained in the offer not to close major plants, and Sie-mens’ commitment to continuing VA TECH's extensive research and development activities. Even today, Siemens spends more on research than any other Austrian company, with annual expenditure of some EUR 600 million.

Siemens Austria also intends to take over all VA TECH's business operations, as specified in the specific privatisation mandate for this company. If this not possible due to antitrust regulations, Siemens has undertaken to find strategic solutions for the plants concerned.

For OIAG, the takeover price offered by Siemens represents a fair purchase price for this company. As is customary in Austria, it also includes a premium on the stock exchange price before the offer was announced, and the offer has therefore made a positive impact on the Austrian capital market. For example, shareholders taking a long-term perspective have seen the value of their shares rise by over 100 per cent since the beginning of 2004. VA TECH shares currently account for about a fortieth, or 2.2 per cent, of the ATX stock exchange index: delisting the company would therefore been very detrimental to the Vienna Stock Exchange.

Further information:
OIAG Corporate Communications
Anita Bauer
Mob.: +43 664 13 40 333
anita.bauer@oiag.at