Röchling Engineering Plastics Acquires Glastic Corporation

CLEVELAND--R�chling Engineering Plastics (REP), Haren/Germany today announced that it has acquired Glastic Corporation from CIGNET LLC for an undisclosed amount.

Headquartered in Cleveland, Glastic Corporation is a leading global supplier of highly engineered composites for electrical and industrial applications. The company serves a diverse group of customers throughout the world, including OEM’s, distributors and fabricators. Among Glastic Corporation brands are Glastherm™ and Goldmember™, as well as a variety of well-known specialty products servicing the electrical industry. The 160 employees generated approximately USD 40 million in revenue in the last business year.

“We are pleased to acquire Glastic Corporation and its market-leading brands and products. For 2007 we expect a significant increase of sales,” said Ludger Bartels, President and Chief Executive Officer of R�chling Engineering Plastics. “This will be a growth driver as it ideally fits with our other composite businesses. Glastic Corporation possesses the core characteristics REP requires in our disciplined acquisition program. It has an outstanding leadership team, is a leader in its existing markets and has significant opportunities to expand in new areas. Glastic Corporation has a diverse, blue-chip customer base and a track record of technical innovation. With an established global infrastructure, especially in Latin America, Glastic Corporation is well-positioned.”

Glastic Corporation will become part of the Composites Division of R�chling Engineering Plastics, and will work closely with other segments on future development applications. Mark DiGiampietro, General Manager of Glastic Corporation, and his management team will continue to lead the business of the new subsidiary.

“Joining the R�chling Engineering Plastics Group is a great step forward in the continuing development of Glastic Corporation,” said Mr. DiGiampietro. “With the focus on high-growth, niche-oriented businesses, R�chling is in an ideal position to help us further strengthen our business. We are thrilled to become a part of this great group of companies, creating even better opportunities for our employees and customers.”

The internationally oriented R�chling Engineering Plastics Group has achieved extremely fast growth in the last few years, and with Group sales running at more than USD 440 million, it is one of the world’s leading suppliers of semi-finished and finished products made of engineered plastics. With a range of thermoplastics and composites, R�chling offers made-to-measure solutions for practically all sectors of the capital goods industry. The product range stretches from semi-finished products via machined-finished parts to compression-molded parts and finished, painted and assembled pultruded sections. As wide-ranging as the product spectrum is also the production processes used: Extruding, molding, filament winding and pultruding as well as machining the semi-finished products on the most modern CNC-controlled milling machines in accordance to customers’ drawings.

R�chling Engineering Plastics is a member of the R�chling-Group, Mannheim/Germany that achieved turnover of about 1.1 billion Euro with 5,400 employees in the year 2005. R�chling successfully completed its transition from a conglomerate to a plastics group in the last year. With the acquisition of the Meta-Plast, R�chling consequential continues the strategy to further develop its High-Performance Plastics Division. With the acquisition of Glastic Corporation R�chling moves on consistently in its progress toward becoming one of the world’s leading plastics-processing enterprises.

Management board of
R�chling Engineering Plastics KG
--------------------------------
Board of Management
Ludger Bartels (President and CEO),
Dr. Joachim Brunswicker (CFO)
R�chlingstr. 1, D-49733 Haren/Germany
Tel. +49 5934 701-0, Fax: -299
info@roechling-plastics.com
www.roechling-plastics.com

Note to Editors: There should be an umlaut over the "o" in "R�chling" throughout this news release.