Lenzing AG Acquires Tencel Group Of Companies

With May 4th as the effective date, Lenzing AG is taking over the entire Tencel group of companies.
The seller is Corsadi BV, part of the international financial group CVC. The purchase agreements
were signed on 4th May. The price of the transaction was not disclosed. The acquisition will
further strengthen Lenzing’s position as one of the leading manufacturers of high quality,
cellulose-based fibers in the world.

Karl Schmutzer, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG and managing director of
BandC Holding, the majority owner, regarded the step as an “absolutely sensible commercial decision
with far-reaching strategic significance for the Lenzing Group.” As a long-term investor, BandC
Holding, the core stakeholder of Lenzing AG, is providing the Managing Board with the security for
planning that it needs for such an investment, so that the Lenzing Group will be able to continue
its successful growth course.

Tencel operates one large-scale Lyocell plant in the United States (Mobile, Alabama) and
another in the United Kingdom (Grimsby), with a total nominal capacity of about 80,000 tons per
year. Including its UK support activities and marketing teams throughout the world, it has a staff
of about 350. Sales for 2003 were EUR 100 mill. The capacity of the Lyocell production site of
Lenzing AG at Heiligenkreuz, Austria, is about 40,000 tons. The Lenzing Group has a staff of more
than 4,000 worldwide, including 180 at Heiligenkreuz. During the last decade Tencel and Lenzing
each independently developed the Lyocell fiber technology and brought it to large-scale industrial
production.

“The acquisition marks a milestone for the Lenzing Group,” said Thomas Fahnemann, chairman of
the managing board of Lenzing. “We are tripling our Lyocell capacity and thereby reaching the
critical size that is necessary for a sustainable and profitable Lyocell operation. With Tencel,
the brand name, we are taking over a most successful brand, together with its international
marketing team.” By owning three Lyocell production sites, Lenzing will be able to use the
available capacities with much more flexibility in the future, as well as to respond in an optimum
fashion to market and customer needs.

“Last but not least, combining the technology and application know-how of the two groups will
considerably enhance their impact,” said Fahnemann. The Lenzing Group will be able to keep up its
further development of the Lyocell technology and to further accelerate the development of new
products. “We expect major stimuli for our development work from the broad mutual exchange of
experience and technology that has now become possible,” said Fahnemann.

The planned integration of Tencel is greatly facilitated by a new corporate organization with
market-oriented business units which was implemented at the beginning of the year.

May 2004

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