Aventis and Bayer CropScience AG, have reached agreement on the final purchase price for Aventis CropScience that Bayer acquired in June 2002 after approvals had been received from the antitrust authorities. The enterprise value of the transaction was set at € 7.25 billion when Aventis and Bayer signed the purchase agreement in October 2001. Under the agreement, an adjustment of € 327 million in favour of Bayer has been made to the original purchase price. This settlement was fully reserved, and thus will have no impact on the earnings of Aventis.

Adjustment of the purchase price is a common way of balancing deviations between preliminary amounts of certain purchase price components, such as working capital and net debt, and the actual value of such components at the time of the closing of a transaction.

Aventis is dedicated to treating and preventing disease by discovering and developing innovative prescription drugs and human vaccines. In 2003, Aventis generated sales of € 16.79 billion, invested € 2.86 billion in research and development and employed approximately 69,000 people in its core business.