Manager Companies
Companies Announcement Office
Australian Stock Exchange Ltd
Level 10, Exchange Centre
20 Bond Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Dear Sir

CSR Limited advises that it has still not finalised its proposed transactions with Amatek Holdings Limited, covering the merger of the two companies’ softwood timber panels operations (medium density fibreboard and particleboard) and the sale of CSR’s Formica laminates business. Amatek is owned by funds managed by CVC Capital Partners Europe Limited.

The Heads of Agreement for the transactions were signed in October last year.

Due diligence by both sides was completed in January but discussions since then have failed to satisfactorily resolve a number of commercial outstanding issues. In addition, the ACCC is still deliberating on one aspect of the proposed arrangement which it raised earlier this year.

While the structures currently being discussed differ in a number of material respects from those contained in the original Heads of Agreement, CSR still believes that a merger or sale of the assets make good commercial sense for both parties. In this context, it is disappointing that to date we have been unable to reach agreement.

Further meetings are planned within the next two weeks. In the event that agreement cannot be reached quickly, following those meetings, CSR believes it makes more sense to suspend further discussions and for both sides to focus their energies on improving the operational performance of their respective businesses.

Peter Kirby
Managing Director