PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11 DECEMBER 2008
REINET RIGHTS ISSUE – STATUS OF THE EXERCISE OF WARRANTS
On 14 November 2008, Reinet Investments SCA (‘Reinet’) issued nil paid warrants to its shareholders, each warrant entitling the holder to subscribe for new shares to be issued by Reinet in the ratio of 4 new Reinet shares for every 5 warrants held. The consideration for each new share to be issued was set at 0.2741 of a British American Tobacco plc (‘BAT’) share. The terms of the rights issue were set out in a prospectus dated 14 November 2008, which may (subject to certain restrictions) be downloaded from the Reinet website (www.reinet.com). The rights issue is fully underwritten.
Eligible holders of warrants held through Clearstream and Euroclear had until Wednesday, 10 December 2008 to elect to exercise the warrants (or such other time as may have been specified by their relevant financial intermediaries or settlement systems) and thereby participate in the rights issue.
The subscription rights relating to unexercised warrants will be sold by way of an auction to be held on Monday, 15 December 2008 in Luxembourg. The auction will be held at 11.00 am (CET) at the registered office of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, avenue de la Porte Neuve, L-2227 Luxembourg. The auction will be conducted by Mr Carlos Calvo, huissier de justice, Luxembourg.
The status of the exercise of the warrants presently known may be summarised as follows:
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10 246 038 warrants are held in dematerialised form in Clearstream and Euroclear (excluding those held by the Depositary in respect of South African warrant receipts in issue). 5 949 510 of those warrants have (subject to completing the delivery of the requisite number of BAT shares) been exercised. It is therefore expected that at least 4 296 528 subscription rights in respect of unexercised warrants should be available for purchase at the auction;
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5 852 541 warrants are currently held in registered form. It is anticipated that all of these warrants will be exercised by 9.00 am (CET) on Friday, 12 December 2008; and
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92 757 691 warrants are held in the form of South African warrant receipts. The level of exercises in respect of these warrant receipts will not be known before 3.00 pm (CET) on Friday, 12 December 2008.
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Further details of the number of unexercised warrants will be announced by the close of business on Friday, 12 December 2008 and published on the website of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (www.bourse.lu).
REINET INVESTMENTS S.C.A.
REGISTERED OFFICE: 35, BOULEVARD PRINCE HENRI, L-1724 LUXEMBOURG