Whirlpool Corporation Completes Tender Offer for Outstanding Shares of its Brazilian Subsidiaries.

Business Editors

BENTON HARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 7, 2000

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE:WHR) today completed its tender offer for the outstanding publicly traded shares in Brazil of its subsidiaries Brasmotor S.A. and Multibras S.A. In completing the offer, the company purchased approximately 88 percent of the outstanding publicly traded shares for approximately $283 million. With this additional investment, Whirlpool Corporation will own about 94 percent of the two Brazilian subsidiaries. The company expects the transaction to be accretive to its earnings beginning in the first quarter of 2000.

"Brazil and the entire Latin American region are an integral part of our global business strategy and this investment is an important step in our plan to fully integrate the Brazilian operations into the global Whirlpool network," said Whirlpool Chairman and CEO, David R. Whitwam. "As we noted in our latest earnings report, Whirlpool's Latin American performance continues to improve, and we currently expect appliance industry unit shipments in Latin America to grow between 7 and 10 percent in 2000."

"This transaction solidly enhances our ability to invest and grow in a market that is improving in Brazil and throughout Latin America," added Paulo F.M. Periquito, president of Whirlpool Corporation's Latin American operations and also CEO of Brasmotor.

Brasmotor is a Whirlpool Corporation controlled holding company, which in turn holds control of Multibras, the leading appliance company in Brazil. Both companies are publicly traded on Brazil's stock exchanges. Whirlpool also controls a third publicly traded Brazilian company, Embraco, which is the world's leading supplier of hermetic compressors to the appliance industry.

Whirlpool Corporation is the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances. Headquartered in Benton Harbor, the company manufactures in 13 countries and markets products under 11 major brand names in more than 170 countries. Additional information about the company can be found on the Internet at www.WhirlpoolCorp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition to ongoing volatile economic conditions in Brazil noted in this news release, there are certain factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated by some of the statements made. These factors are listed in the Company's most recently filed Form 10-Q and/or Form 10-K.

Note to Editors: There should be an accent mark over the "a" in "Multibras" throughout the release. The accent marks were omitted for transmission purposes only.