December 23, 2005 – Simclar Group Ltd has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets of the Northrop Grumman-owned Litton Interconnect Technologies Assembly Business.

Simclar Group, which is now one of Europe’s largest family-owned manufacturing concerns, has agreed to pay $28m for certain assets of the Northrop Grumman-owned Litton Interconnect Technologies Assembly Business. Simclar forecasts that the acquisition will boost Group turnover for 2006 to around $400m.

The Interconnect Technologies Assembly Business, which has been part of the US-based Northrop Grumman business for more than 4 years, brings design and assembly technology to the existing Simclar capabilities. It has facilities in Glenrothes, Scotland, Springfield, Missouri and Suzhou, China. The acquisition takes the Simclar Group global payroll to over 2200 people.

As the transaction includes the acquisition of the equity of a Chinese company, it is therefore conditional upon approval by the relevant authorities in China. This approval is expected to be received in the next sixty days.

Interconnect Technologies Assembly Business is a world-leading supplier of high-performance backplane interconnect solutions to major blue-chip customers in markets as diverse as network, wireline and wireless infrastructure, defense and electronic data processing. Backplane interconnect systems form the core of high-end electronic systems and provide the means for power distribution and data communications between electronic sub-system building blocks.

Simclar, which already operates on three continents, with existing manufacturing facilities in Scotland, the US, Mexico and China, was founded in 1976 by Group Chairman, Sam Russell.

Mr. Russell said: “The Interconnect Assembly acquisition propels us still further down the track in our group goal of becoming a $500m business. It also allows us to become even more of a one-stop-shop player in terms of supplying electronic cabinet packages to our global customers.

“The backplane sits at the heart of every advanced electronic system, and its performance ultimately determines the overall system performance. As technology continues to move forward, we have recognized that having the ability to provide advanced backplane interconnect solutions will enable us to offer a major source of competitive advantage to our customers. Aligned with our capabilities in supply of metalwork and cabling solutions, at a stroke we will become a highly appealing one-stop-shop for original equipment manufacturers requiring system design and integration services,” said Mr. Russell.

He adds: “The Interconnect Assembly business as it stands right now will bring great synergies to Simclar. However, we’ve looked very closely at what the business is doing currently and we are confident that we can grow that business significantly.”

Earlier this year Simclar Group announced that its US division had posted record 2004 profits. Simclar, Inc reported its results for the year ended December 31, 2004 with sales up 48 per cent from $36m to $53m and pre tax profit up from $1.4m in 2003 to $3.4m last year. Simclar has seven North American manufacturing locations and a recent acquisition in Mexico where $3.5m has just been invested in the construction of a new sheet metal plant.