Mills & Partners Signs Letter of Intent to Acquire Lucent Technologies' Circuit Board Operation

St. Louis, September 6, 1996- Mills & Partners, Inc., a St. Louis-based firm specializing in the acquisition and operation of commercial and industrial companies, today announced that together with Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, a leading private investment firm in Dallas, that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire the interconnection products business of Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group, a business that makes printed circuit boards and backplanes.

Lucent's interconnection business is headquartered in Richmond, Va., where the Richmond Works, as the factory is known, employs approximately 2,100 people. The proposed transaction, financial terms of which were not disclosed, is expected to be completed by year-end. AT&T Microelectronics, which became Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group, announced in January its intention to sell its interconnection products business in order to focus on products that it considered more consistent with its long-term growth strategy.

James N. Mills, Chairman of Mills & Partners, Inc., said, "This proposed transaction is another example of our buy-and-build philosophy. We and our colleagues at Hicks Muse regard Lucent's interconnection business as a great platform for future growth."

Lucent Technologies' Vice President, Systems and Components, William R. Spivey stated, "We are pleased to be working with Mills & Partners and Hicks Muse, and are pleased that they have indicated their intention to use the Richmond Works as the cornerstone for building a global printed circuit board and backplane manufacturing business. Both Hicks Muse and Mills & Partners have outstanding track records of building the competitiveness and value of entities they acquire."

The largest customer of the Richmond Works following the sale will continue to be Lucent Technologies, pursuant to a supply agreement to be executed at the time of the sale.

Printed circuit boards, also known as printed wiring boards, are rigid boards to which integrated circuits and other electronic components are attached. The boards themselves contain several layers of wiring paths to interconnect these various components. Backplanes function as interconnections between circuit boards within an electronic device. Lucent Technologies was formed as the result of AT&T's restructuring into three separate, publicly held companies. Its Microelectronics Group designs and manufactures integrated circuits, power supplies, optoelectronic components and printed circuit boards for applications in the telecommunications and computing industries. In addition to such components, Lucent Technologies offers public and private networks, communications systems and software, and consumer and business telephone systems. Bell Laboratories is the research and development arm of the new company.

On August 29, as previously announced, and with the approval of the Board of Directors of Circo Craft, a newly created affiliate of Hicks Muse agreed to commence no later than September 9 a tender offer for all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Circo Craft, a leading North American manufacturer of advanced printed circuit structures.

Mills & Partners, Inc., founded in 1985 and headquartered in St. Louis, has participated in the acquisitions leading to the formation and expansion of several significant stand-alone companies. These commercial and industrial companies generate revenues in excess of $l.5 billion with 85 manufacturing facilities and 13,400 employees located in most of the world's significant industrialized countries.