Ecolab to Acquire Microtek Medical Holdings

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Ecolab Inc. announces it has agreed to purchase Microtek Medical Holdings Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based manufacturer and marketer of infection control products for healthcare and acute care facilities. Microteks specialized product lines include infection barrier equipment drapes, patient drapes, fluid control products and operating room cleanup systems. Microteks 2006 sales were $142 million.

Ecolab has agreed to pay $6.30 per share in cash for Microteks shares; Microtek had 43.5 million shares outstanding as of June 30, 2007. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, and is subject to the approval of Microteks shareholders and other customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Materials will be mailed to Microtek shareholders after required filings have been made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Closing is expected to occur in the fourth quarter.

Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Ecolabs chairman, president and CEO, commented on the announcement, saying, This represents another strong step to significantly expand Ecolabs growing presence in healthcare cleaning and infection prevention. As the global leader in premium cleaning and sanitation, we have a long-standing record of bringing new, innovative and effective solutions to the foodservice, lodging, food and beverage processing and healthcare industries, helping them to deliver cleaner, safer and healthier products, experiences and outcomes. We are continuing to build on our capabilities, particularly in the healthcare market, as we focus on improving cleaning and sanitizing solutions for patients and staff, and simultaneously reduce healthcare associated infections (HAIs).

Baker continued, Microtek will combine with our existing hand hygiene, medical instrument, and surface and environmental cleaning and disinfection offerings to comprise a critical part of our strategy to offer broad and complete product solutions for the healthcare market, and especially HAIs. Further, Microteks strong team and excellent customer relationships will provide us new avenues to pursue future growth with our existing products. We expect dilution from the transaction to be approximately $0.01 per share in the fourth quarter 2007, but we believe our current business momentum will enable us to offset that; as a result, we continue to look for 2007 earnings per share to be in the $1.64 to $1.66 range. We expect dilution from Microtek to represent approximately $0.02 per share in 2008, and show accretion building thereafter.

With sales of $5 billion and more than 13,000 sales-and-service associates, Ecolab Inc. is a global leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services.

Source: Ecolab Inc.