Tata Chemicals announces successful acquisition of General Chemicals

Tata Chemicals Ltd has informed that the Company on March 27, 2008, after fulfilling all necessary regulatory requirements and approvals, successfully completed the acquisition of General Chemical Industrial Products Inc. (General Chemicals) in the USA for a total consideration US $ 1,005 million.

General Chemicals is one of the largest Soda Ash producers in the USA with a capacity of 2.5 million TPA of natural Soda Ash. The Company's mining and manufacturing facilities located at Green River Basin in Wyoming, USA, are assets of a very high quality, providing access to some of the world's largest and most economically recoverable trona ore deposits that are then converted to Soda Ash. It has significant reserves of extractable trona ore from the current mines for which there are long-term Federal, State and private leases. The Company has a strong and committed management team, which is highly focused on ethical conduct, strong customer relationships and performance excellence.

The acquisition of General Chemicals takes Tata Chemicals total global capacity up from around 3.0 Million Tonnes to around 5.5 Million Tonnes of Soda Ash per annum. Tata Chemicals Ltd had in 2005-06 acquired the Brunner Mond Group of Companies, a leading producer of Soda Ash with a presence in the UK, Netherlands and Kenya.

Tata Chemicals Ltd now enjoys a unique advantage of having majority of its capacity from natural Soda Ash, which is not only cheaper but more environmentally-friendly than Soda Ash made by the synthetic route. The acquisition also gives Tata Chemicals Ltd, access to two of the lowest cost natural Soda Ash reserves in the world (Wyoming, USA and Magadi, Kenya). With this acquisition, Tata Chemicals Ltd now has manufacturing locations in four continents and access to consumers around the world, including new markets it was not earlier in, viz. North America, Latin America and certain markets in the Far East.

Tata Chemicals Ltd has funded the said acquisition through a mixture of term financing (ECB) of $ 500 m. and bridge financing (in the US) of $ 350m, raising a total of US$ 850 m at very competitive rates.