---

New Venture Gear Signs Licensing Agreement With ASHA Corporation

30 January 1998

New Venture Gear Signs Licensing Agreement With ASHA Corporation

    TROY, Mich., Jan. 30 -- New Venture Gear (NVG), the world's
largest designer and manufacturer of four-wheel-drive transfer cases and a
leader in other automotive driveline products, has signed a license agreement
with ASHA Corporation to develop ASHA technologies into a
variety of traction-control components.
    NVG is developing the ASHA technologies into a line of traction control
subsystems for driveline applications.
    "Based on our success with ASHA's technologies in our progressive transfer
case, we have agreed to use these technologies in an expanded line of products
that will lead the way in redefining traction control," says Fred L. Hubacker,
New Venture Gear President and CEO.
    ASHA technology is used in NVG's all-new Progressive Transfer Case which
debuts in Chrysler's 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
    ASHA Corporation is a publicly-traded development company specializing in
the conception and design of new products for the automotive industry.  Its
headquarters is in Santa Barbara, California.
    New Venture Gear's headquarters and product engineering center are in
Troy, Michigan.  It has manufacturing facilities in East Syracuse, New York,
and Muncie, Indiana.

SOURCE  New Venture Gear