Industry Veterans to Acquire Metaldyne's Forging Business

Process leadership will be enhanced by industry-leading assets and resources that will make new Forming Technologies, Inc. the largest independent provider of automotive forging in North America.

ROYAL OAK, Mich., Jan. 10 -- Former principals of two forging companies, and their investment team, have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the North American Forging Operations of Metaldyne Corporation (Plymouth, MI). The transaction is expected to be completed within the first quarter of 2006.

The acquisition will include an industry-leading roster of capital equipment, expertise, and customers for a full spectrum of forging processes. The new company, Forming Technologies, Inc., will be the largest independent provider of automotive forgings in North America, and will be headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Capabilities include the production of cold, warm and hot forgings for a variety of powertrain and drivetrain applications. Product expertise includes gears and shafts for transmissions and transfer cases, as well as ring gears, clutch housings, bearing races, stem pinions, wheel spindles and other parts. Seven operating facilities in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana are included in the acquisition.

Forming Technologies will be led by forging industry veteran and former owner of MSP Industries, Dr. Richard McDermott, who will act as CEO. He is joined by CFO Rick Larkin, also formerly with MSP Industries, and COO Lance Harris, former operating executive with MascoTech, the predecessor company of Metaldyne's Forgings Business.

"We are delighted to have executed this agreement and look forward to our return to the forging business in the weeks ahead. We will commit ourselves to serving the metal forming requirements of the North American market and will leverage these world-class manufacturing capabilities with a focus on expanding the technological frontiers of high production cold, warm and hot forming," said Richard McDermott.

Lance Harris continues: "We have acquired state-of-the-art production facilities with an unrivaled range of equipment to serve a diverse customer base including not only the North American auto manufacturers and numerous Tier One suppliers, but also customers in non-automotive sectors such as off- highway, heavy truck and fluid power applications. Concentrating our efforts on forging, as opposed to subsequent machining and assembly operations, will allow us to develop new relationships with customers that had previously viewed Metaldyne, with its wide ranging capabilities, as a competitor."

Forming Technologies, Inc. was founded by GR Investment Group, Ltd., of Clawson, Michigan and New York private equity fund Jacobson Partners. While Forming Technologies will supply forgings to Metaldyne under a long-term supply arrangement, it is an independent, privately-held company in which neither Metaldyne nor its shareholders will have an ownership stake.