With the Sale of Its Interest in Teris SA and Teris LLC to Sita, Rhodia Pursues Its Strategy of Focusing On Its Core Businesses

Business Wire, April 22, 2002

Business Editors

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2002

In a press release published today and co-signed by Sita, the waste services division of Suez, Rhodia (NYSE:RHA) has announced its decision to sell its interest in Teris SA and Teris LLC to Sita.

Teris SA and Teris LLC are jointly owned subsidiaries specializing in hazardous waste processing, respectively in Europe and the United States. The transaction will be effective on July 1, 2002.

This move is part of Rhodia's overall plan to divest non strategic assets that was announced at its annual results on January 29. The entire divestment program should reduce the Group indebtedness by 500 million euros as of 2002.

This divestment is consistent with Rhodia's commitment to divest assets which can be valued, without destroying shareholder value, and which do not fit into Rhodia's business model based on the cross-fertilization of technologies and high added-value solutions to its customers.

In the case of Teris SA and Teris LLC, the combination of Rhodia's different technologies with the treatment of hazardous industrial waste is marginal and the market synergies with the other activities of the Group are low.

After the letter of intent signed in March earlier this year with Raisio providing the sale of all Group assets in latex for paper applications, this withdrawal from the hazardous industrial waste business constitutes a new major step both in the pursuit of Rhodia's divestiture plan of non core assets and in the drive to reduce the indebtedness.

Rhodia is one of the world's leaders in specialty chemicals providing products and services to the automotive, health care, fragrance, apparel, electronics, personal care and environmental markets. Rhodia generated net sales of 7.2 billion euros in 2001 and employs 27,000 people worldwide. Rhodia is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges.