Lowe's confirms non-binding proposal to RONA Board to acquire RONA for C$14.50 in cash per share

Lowe's Companies Inc. LOW confirmed today that it has made a non-binding proposal to the Board of Directors of Canadian home improvement and hardware retailer RONA Inc. RON ("RONA") to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of RONA for C$14.50 in cash per share. A number of institutional shareholders representing in the aggregate approximately 15% of RONA's outstanding shares have indicated that they support Lowe's proposal. The proposal, which is subject to the satisfactory completion of confirmatory due diligence, represented an attractive premium of 36.7% to the C$10.61 closing share price on July 6, 2012 and a premium of 42.4% to the volume-weighted average share price of C$10.18 for the 20 trading days ended July 6, 2012, the last trading day prior to the submission of the Lowe's proposal. However, the proposal was rejected by the Board of Directors of RONA. The non-binding proposal was delivered to RONA Board Chairman Mr. Robert Par , on July 8th, 2012. RONA's Board asked Lowe's for additional time to consider the proposal but, subsequently, rejected it. In light of this decision, Lowe's is making its proposal public in its entirety to allow for all RONA shareholders and other stakeholders to evaluate the numerous economic and commercial benefits outlined in the proposal and to allow for shareholders to communicate their views directly to RONA's board. Lowe's proposal letter is appended in its entirety to this news release.