Ahold Global Offering to Finance Acquisition of Giant Food Inc.; Preliminary Information.ZAANDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 1998--Royal Ahold (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AHO), the international food retailer, today announced preliminary details of a global offering of Ahold common shares of approximately USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 2 billion. A syndicate of banks led by Goldman Sachs International and ABN AMRO Rothschild is in the process of preparing the offering. The proceeds of the offering will be used to finance Ahold's acquisition of US supermarket company Giant Food Inc. Ahold may determine to finance part of the transaction through the issue of convertible subordinated bonds Subordinated bonds Securities that fall after others in priority of claims on the entity in the case of financial distress. . Detailed information about the offering will be included in the preliminary prospectus Preliminary Prospectus A first draft registration statement filed by a firm prior to proceeding with an initial public offering of securities. The document, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, is intended to provide pertinent information to prospective shareholders , available from bank syndicate members as of September 8, 1998. The subscription period for the offering has been provisionally set from September 10 through 24, 1998. Goldman Sachs International and ABN AMRO Rothschild are Joint Global Coordinators and bookrunners for the offering. Dutch banks ING Barings, Rabo Securities andKempen & Co. are participating in the syndicate along with Merrill Lynch International, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney and Warburg Dillon Read Investment bank created by the 1997 merger of S.G. Warburg & Co. and Dillon, Read & Co. Subsequently renamed UBS Warburg and now part of UBS AG, where the Warburg name was eventually dropped. . Giant Food Inc. Giant Food Inc. is a prominent supermarket company based in Landover, Maryland. The company operates 179 stores principally in the Washington D.C. metropolitan and Baltimore areas and achieved 1997 sales of USD 4.2 billion. Royal Ahold Royal Ahold is a rapidly growing international food retailer with leading supermarket chains in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. The company operates over 3,200 supermarkets, hypermarkets and specialty stores with 1997 sales of NLG NLG The ISO 4217 currency code for the Dutch Guilder. 50 billion (approximately USD 26 billion). Ahold employs almost 220,000 people and serves over 20 million customers every week. Royal Ahold common shares are listed on the Amsterdam Exchanges and the Swiss Exchange Swiss Exchange The major securities market of Switzerland. and, in the form of American Depositary Receipts, on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . On April 19, at the end of the 1998 first quarter, a total of 558.2 million Ahold common shares were outstanding (including common shares in the form of ADRs).
CONTACT: Royal Ahold, Media Relations
Hans Gobes
+31-75-659-5665
After office hours:
+31-23-527-0456
or
Royal Ahold, Investor Relations
Stuart Brown
+31-75-659-5648
investor.relations@corp.ahold.nl
or
Taylor Rafferty Associates
Anne Beevers
212/889-4350
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