TRISTAR Laminates Completes Acquisition of Gould’s CAC® business

Friday, April 28, 2006

For Release:  Immediate

Lake Forest, CA. – (April 28, 2006) – TRISTAR Laminates and CAC®, Inc. today announced the completion of its acquisition of the CAC® business from Gould Electronics Inc., a subsidiary of Nippon Mining & Metals Co. Ltd.  Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. 

The sale involved the assets, including manufacturing equipment, and inventory of the CAC® product line, which also includes Duo-Foil and B-10 aluminum foil, all of which are directed to the printed circuit board industry. 

Patrick Redfern, who has been instrumental in the transaction, will assume the role of president of CAC, Inc. effective immediately.

Insulectro will remain the sole distributor of the CAC® products in the United States and IEC will remain the distributor to the Canadian market. 

“We are pleased that we have come to a successful completion of this transaction on schedule.” said TRISTAR president Tim Redfern. Mr. Redfern went on to say, “We are strongly convinced that this is a positive acquisition for our company as well as the PCB market in North America.  It allows our valued customers the continued access to a product that delivers tremendous value to the fabrication of printed circuit boards.” 

“CAC is an important product to the PCB industry and Gould is pleased TRISTAR and CAC Inc. will continue to make it available to the North American customers.” said David P. Burgess, Gould president. 

Tri-Star Laminates/LCOA is the leading developer and manufacturer of entry and backup material used to drill printed circuit boards.  Tri-Star manufactures EO+ composite entry material, Spectrum Gold and Series 3000 backup as well as our patented Slickback_TM, a lubricated backup material that is effective in reducing drill wear, improving hole wall quality while saving its customers substantial money in their drilling process. Additional information about Tri-Star/LCOA can be found at www.lcoa.com.

CAC, Inc. will manufacturer, market and sell the CAC®, DuoFoil and B-10 Aluminum products into the North American PCB market. For more information regarding this acquisition you can contact Patrick Redfern at (949) 587-3245.

Gould Electronics Inc., a subsidiary of Nippon Mining & Metals Co., Ltd., produced electrodeposited copper foil for printed circuit board manufacturers and laminators under the Gould brand, and produces TCR®, its thin film embedded resistor copper foil product also for the printed circuit board industry.