CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France, December 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On November 28, Essilor cancelled 1,600,000 shares, in line with its commitment to shareholders to offset the dilutive impact of Oceane bond conversions and the Company's stock option plans. These latest cancellations concerned shares acquired under the 6.9 million share buyback program authorized by the Board of Directors on July 15, 2008 to offset the dilutive impact of converting outstanding Oceane bonds due in 2010. To date, a total of 1.5 million shares have been bought back under this program. At the same time, in line with its standard practice, Essilor has cancelled shares bought back on the market in order to offset the dilutive impact of its stock option plans, and also of its performance share plans which are covered by shares held in treasury stock. Following these cancellations, Essilor's capital is represented by 210,445,678 shares. Essilor International is the world leader in ophthalmic optical products, offering a wide range of lenses under the flagship Varilux(R), Crizal(R), Essilor(R) and Definity(R) brands to correct myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia and astigmatism. Essilor operates worldwide through 15 production sites, 270 lens finishing laboratories and local distribution networks. The Essilor share trades on the Euronext Paris market and is included in the CAC 40 index (ISIN: FR 0000121667; Reuters: ESSI.PA; Bloomberg: EF FP). Investor Relations and Financial Communications Phone: +33(0)1-49-77-42-16 http://www.essilor.com/ DATASOURCE: Essilor CONTACT: Investor Relations and Financial Communications: Phone: +33(0)1-49-77-42-16

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