Bureau Veritas undertakes a buyback of c.0.8% of its shares under the accelerated placement announced by Wendel

PRESS RELEASE

Neuilly-sur-Seine, France – April 4, 2024

Bureau Veritas undertakes a buyback of c.0.8% of its shares under the accelerated placement announced by Wendel

Bureau Veritas, a global leader in the Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) industry, today announces its decision to acquire from Wendel a block of its own shares – which will amount to a maximum of EUR 100 million and represent circa 0.8% of its capital. This buyback is carried out by way of participation in the accelerated bookbuilding process to institutional investors, including Lac1, managed by Bpifrance, as announced by Wendel today. The transaction has been approved unanimously by the independent directors.

Wendel remains Bureau Veritas’ largest shareholder after the completion of this transaction, with c.26% of the share capital and c.41% of the voting rights. Lac1, managed by Bpifrance, will become a new cornerstone investor with c.4% of the share capital.

• IMPLEMENTATION OF A BUYBACK BY THE COMPANY OF 0.8% OF ITS OWN SHARES
  
  

Following today's announcement by Wendel of its intention to sell c.18 million Bureau Veritas shares representing approximately 9% of the share capital - a total consideration amount of up to EUR 1.1 billion - by way of an accelerated bookbuilding process, Bureau Veritas announces that it has undertaken to participate by placing an irrevocable purchase order, at the placement price, for its own shares (representing approximately 0.8% of its share capital) for a maximum total amount of EUR 100 million. This order is part of the share buyback program authorized by Bureau Veritas shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of June 22, 2023, and which the Board of Directors decided to implement at its meeting of April 3, 2024.

The share buyback price will be equal to the price resulting from the placement procedure and the building of the order book. The Company will not participate in the determination of the price resulting from the order book.

With this buyback, the Company is making significant progress on its objective, announced at the time of the presentation of its strategic plan on March 20, 2024, of purchasing its own shares under the buyback program for a maximum amount of EUR 200 million in 2024. This buyback will accelerate the objective of improving returns to shareholders by increasing earnings per share.