Hella and Stanley Purchase Shares in Korean Auto Supplier

PLYMOUTH, Mich., Feb. 17, 2004 -- Automotive lighting suppliers Hella KG Hueck & Company and Stanley Electric Company Ltd. have recently purchased five percent of shares in Samlip Industrial Company Ltd. of Daegu, Korea.

Hella's investment represents a further expansion of the company's 15- year-old relationship with the Korean supplier, according to Joe Borruso, president and CEO of Hella North America.

Hella, based in Lippstadt, Germany, is a supplier of automotive lighting and electronics components. Samlip develops and produces parts and components for automotive lighting, chassis and steering systems. Stanley Electric, based in Tokyo, develops and produces components and systems for vehicle and motorcycle lighting.

Hella has participated in several other joint ventures with Samlip in Korea and China, including Hella-Samlip Electric Company in Daegu, which produces xenon control units, headlamp leveling devices and safety brake lights. Hella-Behr, a collaboration between Hella KG Hueck and Behr GmbH that specializes in automotive front-end modules, formed a joint venture with Samlip in 2002 to develop and produce front ends.

Lighting, electronics, complete vehicle modules, air conditioning systems, vehicle wiring systems and signal processing for the automobile industry, as well as automotive aftermarket components, are the core fields of competency for automotive supplier Hella KG Hueck & Co. Sales for the Hella Group are approximately $3.8 billion, placing Hella among Germany's top 100 industrial companies.

With its corporate headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany, the company employs more than 22,800 people at 61 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint-venture companies in 18 countries. More than 1,800 engineers and technicians work in research and development. All of the world's leading automobile and automotive-systems manufacturers are Hella customers.

Additional information is available on the Internet at www.hella.com .