Court Approves Standard Automotive Post-Petition Financing Agreement With Bank Group

    NEW YORK--May 6, 2002--Standard Automotive Corporation (AMEX:AJX) today announced that the Bankruptcy Court has entered a final order with respect to the Company's financing arrangement with its current lenders, which should provide the Company with sufficient liquidity to fund operations without interruption during the reorganization process.
    The Company has also retained Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc., the Baltimore-based investment banking firm to assist it in identifying potential buyers for the Company or certain of its subsidiaries. "We are pleased that we were able to come to agreement with our banks for further post-petition financing," said John E. Elliott, II, chairman and chief restructuring officer. "This funding will provide our vendors with additional financial assurances that we will continue to pay them in the ordinary course for goods and services we purchase from them going forward.
    "With our first day orders approved and our post-petition financing in place we can continue providing our customers with the high quality products they have come to expect from us and in the long-term we can focus on the sale or restructuring of some or all of our subsidiaries which will create greater access to the financial resources necessary for our subsidiaries to prosper and grow," Mr. Elliott said.
    In addition to the financing that will be provided as a result of the arrangement the Court approved on Friday, the operating subsidiary companies are generating profits and the Company's cash position has improved by approximately $1.5 million since March 19, 2002 when Standard Automotive, Ajax Manufacturing Company and certain of its subsidiary holding companies -- CPS Enterprises, Inc., Barclay Investments, Inc. and Critical Components Corporation -- filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
    Standard Automotive is a diversified company with production facilities located throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Standard Automotive manufactures precision products for aerospace, nuclear, industrial and defense markets, and it builds a broad line of specialized dump truck bodies, dump trailers, and related products.

    The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements include those describing the expected future operations of Standard Automotive Corporation and the expectations regarding the outcome of the financing and restructuring transactions described in this release. Management wishes to caution the reader that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the company's ability to complete the transactions described in this release and those risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-KA filed on July 27, 2001 for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001 and in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on February 19, 2002 for the quarter ended December 31, 2001. Other important factors that could cause actual events or results to be materially different from the forward-looking statements include the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern; court approval of the Company's first day papers and other motions prosecuted by it from time to time in the chapter 11 cases; the ability of the Company to develop, prosecute, confirm and consummate one or more plans of reorganization with respect to the chapter 11 cases (or any significant delay with respect thereto); risks associated with third parties seeking and obtaining court approval to terminate or shorten the exclusivity period for the Company to propose and confirm one or more plans of reorganization, for the appointment of a chapter 11 trustee or to convert the cases into chapter 7 cases.