EFTC to Acquire Agfa Circuit Card Manufacturing Operation

Business Wire, July 16, 1998

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1998--EFTC Corp. (NASDAQ:EFTC) (the "Company"), announced today that it has entered into a Letter of Intent to acquire the circuit card assembly operations of Agfa Division, Bayer Corp.

The assembly operation is located in Wilmington, Mass., a suburb of Boston and employs approximately 100 people. The division produces circuit cards used in Electronic Prepress Systems (EPS). EFTC will offer employment to all Agfa employees currently associated with the circuit card operation, which includes an internal raw board fabrication capability.

Under the Letter of Intent, Agfa and EFTC will enter into a long-term Strategic Supply Agreement, whereby EFTC will continue to produce and supply Agfa with circuit card assemblies used in their EPS products. EFTC will produce approximately 125 different assemblies for Agfa.

"After an extensive search for potential strategic suppliers, we selected EFTC because of their exclusive focus on providing innovative, high-mix manufacturing solutions," said Michael Paige, senior vice president of Agfa Division, Bayer Corp. "EFTC's ability to deliver quality products along with our similar philosophies in recognizing employees as a valued asset were key in our selection process."

It is anticipated that EFTC will supply Agfa with approximately $20 million of circuit cards annually. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter and be accretive to earnings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"EFTC is extremely pleased to be selected by Agfa as a strategic supplier," said Jack Calderon, EFTC's chairman and CEO. "We believe there are excellent growth opportunities with Agfa both domestically and abroad."

The Wilmington plant will serve as EFTC's Northeast Manufacturing Operation. Additionally, the capability will be augmented with the prototype capabilities of EFTCexpress located in Manchester, N.H. EFTC intends on marketing its manufacturing capabilities to third party customers located in the Northeast.

The Agfa-Gevaert Group is a leading worldwide manufacturer of imaging products and systems, with annual sales of over $4.5 billion. Agfa-Gevaert manufactures and markets products and systems for the electronic and photographic prepress, medical and technical diagnostic, and amateur and professional photographic markets.

Headquartered in Europe, Agfa-Gevaert is wholly owned by Bayer AG. In the United States, Agfa operates as a division of Bayer Corp., with headquarters in Ridgefield Park, N.J. Bayer, headquartered in Pittsburgh, has major businesses in chemicals, health care, and imaging technologies. Bayer Corp. employs 24,000 people and had 1997 sales of $9.3 billion.

EFTC, founded in 1981, is a provider of electronic manufacturing services exclusively focusing on high-mix manufacturing, including circuit card assembly, quick-turn manufacturing, prototype services, build-to-order, and repair and warranty services. Additionally, EFTC provides design for manufacturing (DFM), design for test (DFT), and design for serviceability (DFS) engineering services. The Company's facilities are located in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington State. EFTC employs approximately 2,000 people at these facilities.

The Company manufactures and/or repairs products for OEM customers in the aerospace/avionics, medical, instrumentation, computer-related, and communications industries. EFTC is headquartered at 9351 Grant Street, Sixth Floor, Denver, CO, 80229; phone 303/451-8200; fax 303/280-8358.

This release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance of the company. Such statements are just predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. All of the Company's orders and contracts are subject to cancellation. We refer you to the documents the company files from time to time with the SEC, specifically our 10K and 10Q reports. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements.

EFTC will host a conference call regarding this release at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. To join this call, please dial 415/908-4726.

    CONTACT:  EFTC
               Stu Fuhlendorf, CFO, 303/280-8460
               Mark Plummer, Director, FP&A, 303/280-8350
               or
               Agfa
               Dionn Tron, VP Corp. Communications, 201/440-0111 x4714