Carpenter to Acquire U.K. Alloy Manufacturer.

READING, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1998--Carpenter Technology Corp. (NYSE:CRS) announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement in principle to acquire the strip producing business of U.K.-based Telcon Limited, from a venture capital firm for about $10.7 million.

Closing is expected to occur by the end of October.

Telcon is one of four major European producers of narrow strip magnetic and controlled expansion alloys. The aerospace, electrical distribution, telecommunications and automotive industries, as well as appliances and consumer electronic products, use this material.

European demand for these products is more than twice that in the United States, where Carpenter is a major supplier.

Carpenter also will be acquiring Telcon's High Metering Accuracy electrical core business. Used in utility current transformers, these wound cores are made with high permeability nickel-iron strip.

Carpenter is not purchasing Telcon's toroidal core and components business, which includes the manufacture of Planar Magnetics, Hall Effect transducers, wound products and electro-mechanical assemblies. Telcon will continue operating this business on a new site after the Carpenter acquisition.

"This acquisition will give us manufacturing capability in Europe, where Carpenter's sales have grown significantly in the past five years," said Dennis M. Draeger, executive vice president at Carpenter.

"Combined with our strip finishing facility in Reading, Pa., which currently is in the midst of a major modernization and expansion program, the Telcon facility will allow us to ship consistent, high- quality strip products, in shorter timeframes, to a wider range of customers."

About 80 percent of Telcon's alloys business is within Europe. The Telcon operations to be acquired by Carpenter employ about 75 engineers, scientists, production workers and administrative staff.

Telcon is certified to ISO 9002 standards.

The Telcon metals plant, based in Crawley, West Sussex, will be managed on-site by Peter R. Barbis, a long-time Carpenter employee who currently manages Carpenter's strip finishing facility in Reading.

Carpenter, a specialty materials company headquartered in Reading, manufactures and distributes specialty alloys and various engineered products.

The company has acquired more than a dozen companies in the past five years to add manufacturing capacity and capability, increase its sales outside the United States, and diversify its product line.

In fiscal 1998, Carpenter had sales of about $1.2 billion. For more information about Carpenter, visit our Internet site at http://www.cartech.com.