SIE Siemens N Ord

RNS No 9431h
SIEMENS AG
3rd November 1997

International investor group buys Siemens dental business
Plans to take company public

An international investor group signed an agreement today to acquire the
worldwide dental business of the Medical Engineering Group of Siemens AG, Berlin
and Munich. The takeover, subject to approval of antitrust authorities, will be
retroactive to October 1, 1997. The investor group intends to take the business
public within a few years. The group, largely comprised of international pension
funds and insurance companies, is being advised by the Schroder Ventures
Organization of London and Frankfurt, specialists in company takeovers. It has
been agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The Siemens Dental Systems
Division had a business volume of approximately DM900 million in fiscal 1996,
and currently employs some 2,700 people throughout the world, including 250 at
its U.S. affiliate Pelton & Crane in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The investors will take over all of Siemens' dental activities, which include
SIRONA Dental Systems in Bensheim, Germany, Pelton & Crane in the U.S., and a
number of subsidiaries in Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and
France. SIRONA Dental Systems is one of the world's leading suppliers of dental
chairs and hygiene centers, instruments, and innovative systems for dental care.

"We assume that the buyer will continue to develop both production and trade in
the dental business, which has traditionally been anchored in Bensheim,"
explained Gotz Steinhardt, Vice President of the Medical Engineering Group. He
stressed that, due to its great degree of specialization, the Siemens Dental
Systems Division has always been highly independent, and that the unit will have
outstanding prospects for success outside the Siemens Group as well. Success
with the new investor will also help ensure the long-term security of jobs in
Germany and abroad. Friedrich Graf von der Groeben, Managing Partner of
Schroeders & Partner Beteiligungsberatung, stated: "We are Confident that
SIRONA, operating from its home base in Bensheim, will strengthen and expand its
leading market position worldwide."

In addition to its acquisition of Siermens' dental business, the investor group
holds stakes in eleven other companies in Germany that are active in different
fields.

END

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