Saint-Gobain Sales Up 3.8% At Constant Exchange Rates

Consolidate sales for the Saint-Gobain Group came to £22,236M for the first nine months of 2003, representing a contraction of 3.0% on an actual structure basis and 4.6% on a comparable structure basis. As for the first six months of the year, the decline in sales is entirely due to currency effects - which had a 6.6% negative impact during the period - and especially the sharp falls in the value of the US dollar, pound sterling and Brazilian real against the Euro. At constant exchange rates (based on average rates for the first nine months of 2002), sales for the first nine months of 2003 were up 3.8% on actual structure basis and 2.2% on a comparable structure basis.