The Annual General Assembly of Shareholders of HERACLES GENERAL CEMENT COMPANY S.A. was held today, Friday, June 17th 2005, in company?s headquarters in Athens.

The shareholders approved the Directors? report and the financial results of the Company for the year 2004. They also approved the distribution of dividend of 0.40 per share for 2005.

All company's shareholders are beneficiaries of the dividend by the end of the session of the Athens Stock Exchange, on June 17th 2005. The payment of dividend will commence on July 22nd 2005.

During the Annual General Assembly, Albert Corcos, Managing Director of HERACLES, emphasized that: '2004, as expected, showed a slowdown in the market after 7 years of significant growth. Especially that 2003 was a record year due to the Olympic and infrastructure projects. We will continue to focus on improving our costs and competitiveness and enforcing our exports to absorb the idle capacity, not consumed in the domestic market.

That is our consistent policy in the frame of the Sustainable Development for our company and for all our Stakeholders.' HERACLES Group of Companies announced sales of 592.5 million in 2004, decreased by 2.4% compared to the previous year. Operating income before interests and taxes amounted to 115.7 million, compared to 127.6 million in 2004.

HERACLES Group of Companies, a member of Lafarge, has 3 cement plants in Greece. One in Volos, which is the largest cement plant in Europe, one in Halkis Evia and one in Milaki Evia. The total production capacity of the Group is 9.6 million tonnes annually, which makes it the largest cement producer in Greece. HERACLES Group is also active in the production and sale of ready-mix and aggregate products.

Lafarge is the world leader in building materials, and employs 77,000 people in 75 countries. The Group holds top-ranking positions in all four of its Divisions: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete, Roofing and Gypsum. Lafarge posted sales of 14.4 billion in 2004.