---

ABB sells business in line with competition ruling

18 May 1999

ABB sells business in line with competition ruling; Divestiture of Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer Business Concludes Regulatory Obligations On Elsag Bailey Deal

    ZURICH, Switzerland--May 18, 1999--ABB today announced it has agreed to sell Elsag Bailey's U.S.-based gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer business to Germany's Siemens AG. The sale price was not disclosed. The business reported revenues in 1998 of about US$ 50 million and employs some 320 people, mainly at its Bartlesville, Oklahoma site, but also in the U.K., Germany and Singapore, and some ten other countries.
    The divestiture was a condition from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission for their approval of ABB's acquisition of Elsag Bailey Process Automation N.V. That acquisition was completed in January of this year.
    ABB http://www.abb.com is a global engineering and technology company serving customers in power generation, transmission, and distribution; automation; oil, gas, and petrochemicals; industrial products and contracting; and financial services. ABB employs about 200,000 people in more than 100 countries.