Hydro's Board Seeks Authority for Share Buyback

Hydro's Board Seeks Authority for Share Buyback 


OSLO, Norway, March 3  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Norsk Hydro ASA
will at the company's Annual General Meeting 11 May 2004 ask for authorisation
to buy back shares.

Under this authorisation, the Board may buy up to 2,808,810 of the company's own
shares in the market, over the 18 months period commencing 12 May 2004. Each
share may be purchased at prices ranging from NOK 200 to NOK 700 per share.

The Board will at a subsequent General Meeting propose to cancel the purchased
shares, with a corresponding writedown of the share capital. Based on an
agreement with the Norwegian State, Hydro's largest shareholder, the Board will
also propose cancellation of a proportional part of the State'sshares. The
State's ownership share will therefore remain unaffected by the buyback. The
compensation for the State's shares will be determined by the average price paid
in the market for the rest of the shares, plus an interest based on NIBOR + 1
percent, calculated from the dates of acquisition of the corresponding shares.

In total, up to 5 million shares may be cancelled, equivalent to around 2
percent of the outstanding shares. The decision to cancel shares must be made
with a majority vote of 2/3 of the shares represented at the General Meeting.

Hydro's Ordinary General Meeting in 2003 approved a similar authorisation of
share buyback. Under this authorisation, Hydro has purchased 1,484,300 shares in
the market. On 15 January 2004, Hydro's Extraordinary General meeting decided to
cancel these shares, together with 1,157,922 shares belonging to the Norwegian
State. The Board proposes that the remaining part of this authorisation is
retracted.

   Contact   Tor Steinum            Kjetil Bakken
   Telephone [phone]      [phone]
   Cellular  ([phone]      [phone]
   E-mail      

DATASOURCE: Norsk Hydro ASA



CONTACT:  Tor Steinum, [phone], cell, [phone], or

, or Kjetil Bakken, [phone], or [phone],

or , both of Norsk Hydro 



Web site:  http://www.hydro.com/ 

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