3 June 2009

Financing the acquisition of Morton Salt

K+S successfully arranges € 1.55 billion of Credit Facilities

K+S Aktiengesellschaft has signed a € 1.55 billion Syndicated Term Loan and Revolving Credit Facilities (the “Facilities”) on May 29, 2009. K+S will use the Facilities to finance the acquisition of Morton Salt (transaction value of USD 1.675 billion) and for general corporate purposes. With this transaction, K+S is one of the first companies which successfully arranged such a broad syndication in the banking sector within the last year. K+S considers the oversubscription of the Syndicated Term Loan as a positive confirmation of its strong financial basis.

The Facilities were arranged by the Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, Dresdner Kleinwort and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking. The Facilities are split into a € 500 million term loan facility (Tranche A), a € 450 million amortizing term loan facility (Tranche B) and a € 600 million revolving credit facility (Tranche C). Tranche A has a 1 year maturity with a 6 months extension option, Tranche B and Tranche C have a tenor of 3 years. Tranche C was not syndicated as it was replaced by the existing June 2008 € 600 million Revolving Credit Facility on which all lenders have consented to a waiver amending the terms and conditions of this facility to be in line with the new Tranche C.

Syndication was launched on April 21st, 2009 and was very well received in the market ending up in a substantial oversubscription. Consequently K+S decided to increase the Facilities to € 1.55 billion from the launch amount of € 1.4 billion through Tranche B.

The syndicate comprises the following banks:

Mandated Lead Arranger and Bookrunners:
Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, Dresdner Kleinwort and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking
Mandated Lead Arrangers:
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank AG, DZ Bank AG, Grupo Santander, Helaba, HSBC Trinkaus und Burkhardt AG, HSH Nordbank, LBBW, WestLB and RBS
Lead Arrangers:
Deutsche Postbank and Morgan Stanley

Experience growth

The K+S Group is one of the world's leading suppliers of speciality and standard fertilizers as well as plant care and salt products. With its products and brands, K+S offers its customers a range of needs-based goods and services which provides growth opportunities in virtually every sphere of daily life. The K+S Group world's employs more than 12,000 people and achieved revenues of just under € 5.0 billion in 2008. K+S is quoted on all German stock exchanges (ISIN: DE0007162000, symbol: SDF) and listed on the DAX® share index.