Johns Manville and Majority Shareholder Provide Update

on Strategic Review DENVER (PROTEXT) - Johns Manville Corporation (NYSE: JM) and its majority shareholder, the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, today announced that discussions between their financial advisors and potentially interested parties did not result in an acceptable offer for the sale or merger of the company. Johns Manville and the Manville Trust are continuing to explore other options to maximize shareholder value. These options include a secondary public offering by the Trust of a portion of its Johns Manville stock, as well as a buyback of stock by Johns Manville. The Trust currently owns approximately 79% of JM's outstanding stock. "The Trust continues to explore alternative means of liquidating its holdings of JM stock," said Robert Falise, chairman and managing trustee of the Trust. "The Trust believes that a secondary offering of a portion of its JM stock is an appropriate first step towards an eventual liquidation of its investment in Johns Manville." "We believe that the combination of a secondary public offering by the Trust and share repurchases by the company will create value for our shareholders," stated Jerry Henry, chairman and CEO of JM. "These transactions will be accretive to our earnings, create a more active trading market for our stock and enhance the utilization of our tax asset. In addition, this approach provides a greater opportunity for our organization to continue its value-creation strategy." Johns Manville is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building products. The 141-year-old Denver-based company had sales of $1.8 billion in 1998. Johns Manville employs approximately 9,200 people and operates 54 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com. This news release contains "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to the company's financial results and its future operations and, as such, concern matters that are not historical facts. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in such statements. Important factors that could cause such differences are discussed in the company's periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are incorporated herein by this reference. ots Original Text Service: Johns Manville Corporation Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Investors: John Cummings, 303-978-4914, Media: Tom Rafferty, 303-978-2038, both of Johns Manville Corporation Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/527775.html or fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 527775 Web site: http://www.jm.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT