American Crystal Sugar Company and Newcourt Capital to Build $103 Million Molasses Desugarization Project.

MOORHEAD, Minn. and NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 25, 1998--American Crystal Sugar Company and Newcourt Capital today announced the construction of a $103 million molasses desugarization project located in Hillsboro, North Dakota, adjacent to one of American Crystal's five sugar factories in the region.

The facility will extract residual sugar from molasses, which is a by-product of the company's primary sugarbeet production process. American Crystal currently operates one molasses desugarization facility at its East Grand Forks, Minnesota plant. Construction of the project will begin immediately with completion expected by fall of 1999.

"Construction of a second molasses desugarization facility has always been part of the company's strategic plan," said James Horvath, American Crystal Sugar Company President and CEO. "By partnering with Newcourt we were able to accelerate this project earlier in our plan and realize the benefits from it sooner, without compromising any of our other current capital initiatives."

Newcourt Capital structured the $103 million transaction. The majority of financing was funded through the Newcourt Capital Project Fund, a $500 million fund, which provides one-stop access to funds from eight leading U.S. institutional investors including CIGNA, John Hancock and New York Life. The financing is supported by a long-term "use-or-pay" tolling arrangement with American Crystal.

"Financing for the $103 million project was structured to meet American Crystal's off-balance sheet objective and to maximize the company's implicit return from the project," commented Robert Sexton, a Director with Newcourt Capital's global project finance unit. "Our funding partners were very comfortable with the strength of the project and the quality of the project sponsor, American Crystal."

Process Systems Incorporated Construction Company, a subsidiary of Lurgi, AG, the engineering and construction business unit of Metalgesellschaft AG of Germany, has been engaged under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract to build the facility. The technology to be employed is a chromatographic separation process developed by Amalgamated Research Inc. and licensed to Idreco USA, Ltd.

American Crystal Sugar Company is an agricultural cooperative owned by approximately 2,800 farm families in the Red River Valley (Minnesota and North Dakota) involved in the growing and processing of sugarbeets. American Crystal is the largest beet sugar producer in the U.S. and is one of the lowest cost beet sugar producers in the world. American Crystal operates sugar factories at East Grand Forks, Crookston and Moorhead, Minnesota, and Drayton and Hillsboro, North Dakota. Its corporate headquarters and research facilities are located in Moorhead.

Newcourt Capital is a leader in corporate finance providing specialized asset-based financing to the corporate, government and institutional markets for capital equipment acquisitions and infrastructure development. Together with Newcourt Financial and Newcourt Services, it forms Newcourt Credit Group, one of the world's leading sources of asset-based financing with owned and managed assets of US$22.4 billion (C$31.9 billion) and a global distribution capability in 24 countries.

    CONTACT: Jeff Schweitzer                  Robyn Matsumoto
              American Crystal Sugar Company   Newcourt Credit Group
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