Brussels, 22/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - While the European Commission was giving the clearance, on Wednesday, which is indispensable for their merger (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8), the steel companies Arbed, Usinor and Aceralia reached an agreement on the same day concerning the new exchange parities. This reshuffling was requested of Usinor by Aceralia, supported by a favourable economic situation despite the current crisis in the steel sector, with the support of Arbed, a 35% shareholder of the Spanish group. The initial project stipulated that the Usinor shareholders would hold 56.5% of the Newco capital against 23.4% and 20.1% for Arbed and Aceralia respectively. Usinor finally agreed to come down to 53.8%, while Arbed and Aceralia will together hold 46.2% (23.9% for Arbed and 22.3% for Aceralia). In particular, the terms of exchange are 4 Newco shares for 3 Aceralia shares; 43 shares for 4 Arbed shares and one share for one Usinor share. In parallel, the three companies propose payment of an 0.54 euro dividend in the case of Aceralia and 3.50 euro in the case of Arbed as well as payment of an exceptional dividend of 0.40 euros in the case of Usinor.