Tokyo, JAPAN - Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC, Head Office: Tokyo, President: Shinya Ishizu) and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC, Head Office: Tokyo, President: Mikio Sasaki) announced today that, as a step to strengthen each companies' fluorinated fine chemicals business for pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates, they have reached an agreement with British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL, Head Office: Warrington, Cheshire, Chief Executive: John Taylor) to acquire all shares in BNFL's 100% subsidiary, F2 Chemicals Ltd. (F2, Head Office: Preston, Lancashire, UK, Managing Director : Bill Denison), which possesses various unique and innovative fluorine related technologies. AGC and MC have agreed to purchase all shares in F2. Total value to be paid by AGC and MC group for this transaction will be approx £5 million (900 million Japanese Yen) and have signed the share purchase agreement on Jan 31, 2000.

AGC has, in the field of fluorinated chemicals, integrated production processes from raw materials, fluoride, and placed fluorinated chemicals business as one of the "Grow businesses" in its mid-term corporate plan "Shrink to Grow 2001". Not only having been actively involved in the vast area of fluorinated chemicals business, including fluorinated resins, AGC is also putting a lot of its resources into the business of pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates and bulks. MC has a subsidiary specialized in the manufacture of fluorinated fine chemicals, Miteni S.p.A (Miteni, Head Office: Milano, Italy, President: Junichi Komamura), and intends to extend its performance in the production and sales of fluorinated fine chemicals, including pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates and electronics chemicals.

On the other hand, BNFL regarded F2 as non-core subsidiary and was seeking for a purchaser of F2. AGC and MC expected that F2's unique fluorinated gas application technologies would become essential keys to distinguish themselves in the global competition and add the synergetic effects to the fluorinated chemicals business of each group, and decided to jointly acquire F2 to expand applications of those technologies.

Main technologies of F2 are as follows:

After the completion of this transaction, AGC will own 51% share and MC group (MC 34%, Miteni 15%) will own 49% share of F2. F2 will continue its business in its own name, F2 Chemicals Ltd. F2's annual turnover for the year ending December 1999 is estimated at about 500 million Japanese Yen, and AGC and MC will actively support F2's R&D and marketing to double its sales within 5 years.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Arata Yasuda
Director, Fine Chemicals
Performance Chemicals General Division , Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.
12-1, Yurakucho 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8405, Japan
Tel: 81-3-3218-5380 / Fax: 81-3-3218-7843

Mr. Jun Nishizawa
Deputy Manager, Press Relations Office , Mitsubishi Corporation
6-3, Marunouchi 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8086, Japan
Tel: 81-3-3210-2172 / Fax: 81-3-5252-7705

(Information)