Mills & Partners Completes Acquisition Of Circo Craft

St. Louis, October 1, 1996 - Mills & Partners, Inc., a St. Louis-based firm specializing in the acquisition and operation of commercial and industrial companies, today announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Circo Craft Co. Inc., of Montreal, in a transaction valued at approximately Cdn. $180 million (U.S. $130 million). Circo Craft Holding Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary HMTF Canada Acquisition Inc. were formed by an investment fund sponsored by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, a leading private investment firm headquartered in Dallas and partner in the Circo Craft transaction with Mills & Partners.

Circo Craft, founded in 1973, is the leading manufacturer of advanced rigid printed circuit boards in Canada and the fifth-largest independent manufacturer in North America in terms of gross revenues, with 1995 sales of Cdn. $185.2 million (approximately U.S. 135 million), up 22 percent from 1994. Net income for 1995 was Cdn. $11.7 million (approximately U.S. $8.5 million) up more than 82 percent over the prior year.

On September 5, Mills & Partners and Hicks Muse announced that they had 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.

James N. Mills, chairman and CEO of Mills & Partners, said, "We were attracted to Circo Craft by the high quality management and work force, by the dynamics of the printed circuit board industry generally, and by the opportunity Circo Craft — as well as Lucent’s Interconnection products business — represent for applying our buy-and-build strategy to grow the North American and global businesses of these two outstanding enterprises."

Jack D. Furst, a managing director of Hicks Muse, said, "We are pleased to be adding Circo Craft to our growing portfolio of outstanding commercial and industrial enterprises, and to be working with the Circo Craft management team to build Circo Craft’s value for its customers, business partners, employees and our investors."

Printed circuit boards are complex wiring structures that conduct and channel electrical impulses between the components of an electronic assembly. Circo Craft, with more than 1,200 employees including approximately 1,000 in Canada and 200 in Puerto Rico, is a leading supplier of circuit boards to major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and large contract assembly manufacturers in the telecommunications, automotive, computer and industrial electronics industries.

As previously announced, HMTF Canada Acquisition Inc. on September 28, 1996 successfully completed its offer to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of Circo Craft, with 15,918,072 common shares deposited as of that date, representing approximately 99.05 percent of such shares outstanding.

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 $1.5 billion with 85 manufacturing facilities and 13,400 employees located in most of the world’s significant industrialized countries.