Released on January 5, 2009

Specialty chemicals company Sud-Chemie AG, Munich, Germany, has officially taken over Hi-Tech Ceramics, Alfred Station, N.Y., from previous owner Cookson Group plc, London.

Cookson announced it entered into an agreement to sell the filters business last October. The sale was the final step in satisfying anti-trust conditions placed on the company when it purchased Foseco Plc, Staffordshire, U.K., on April 4, 2008.

Sud Chemie would not disclose the price it paid for Hi-Tech, which develops and produces filters for applications in the metalcasting industry. Hi-Tech earned revenues of approximately $7.5 million and trading profit of approximately $1.5 million in the six month period ending June 30.

Sud-Chemie is a publicly traded company serving the consumer-goods, packaging and metalcasting industries, among others. The company generated sales of nearly $1.5 billion in 2007 and employs more than 6,400 people at 80 sales and production sites worldwide. The company recently announced the formation of a global joint venture to serve the metalcasting industry with Ashland Inc., Covington, Ky. The joint venture has yet to be completed.

Since being acquired by Cookson, Foseco announced plans to close its Guelph, Ontario, complex by the end of 2008. The site houses administrative offices, operations of the Foseco-Morval lost foam division and a warehouse of the Foundry and Steel divisions of Foseco Canada Inc.