Dade Behring Announces Hoechst AG Will Increase

Ownership Position Deerfield, Ill. (PROTEXT) - Dade Behring Inc., a leading global manufacturer and marketer of products and systems serving clinical diagnostics, today announced that Hoechst AG (NYSE: HOE) will increase its economic ownership in the company. Hoechst AG, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, currently owns a 32.5 percent share of Dade Behring. The increased ownership will result from a share repurchase program under which Dade Behring will repurchase a portion of its outstanding stock from its non-Hoechst AG shareholders. The share repurchase program will be accomplished through a recapitalization and refinancing. The non-Hoechst AG shareholders -- Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs and company management -- will continue to be the controlling shareholder group. With 1998 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, Dade Behring is among the largest clinical diagnostics companies worldwide and provides the broadest available offering of products and systems for diagnostics testing. Dade Behring is headquartered in Deerfield, Ill., has operations in 39 countries and works through distributors in other regions. ots Original Text Service: Dade Behring Inc. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Fred Nachman for Dade Behring, 312-832-9300, ext. 202, or Joe Grillo for Bain Capital, 617-951-0000 Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug.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