Press Releases

“SDI’s aerospace division produces a range of highly sophisticated products, but the area for which it is best known is the design of initiators.  Initiators facilitate a range of functions, from missile launch devices to escape systems in military aircraft,” said Tom Gallagher, managing director of the Defense, Aerospace and Technology Investment Banking Group.  “Several major evolving applications – like the future National Missile Defense program – will also employ pyrotechnic and initiator devices.”

Over the past six months, First Union’s DATS group has advised on four transactions occurring within the aerospace pyrotechnics industry.  The sale of the aerospace division of SDI is part of an overall trend in ownership turnover within the defense and aerospace industry.

“Small entrepreneurial companies, like SDI, are responsible for important technological innovation, and as a result, are attractive acquisitions for larger companies looking to invest in successful research and development capabilities,” said Craig Wise, a vice president in First Union’s aerospace and defense merger & acquisitions team. “There is a high rate of ownership transfer within the defense and aerospace industry due to larger companies looking to acquire research-focused, smaller companies that will help acquirers achieve their growth objectives and better position them on key platforms.”

The DATS Group of First Union Securities is comprised of more than 22 professionals and offers a range of products including asset based lending, mergers and acquisitions advisory services, asset securitization, cash management, equity, private equity investing and other products to defense and aerospace companies.

First Union (NYSE: FTU), with $253 billion in assets and stockholders' equity of $16 billion at March 31, 2001, is a leading provider of financial services to 15 million retail and corporate customers throughout the East Coast and the nation.

The company operates full-service banking offices in 11 East Coast states and Washington, D.C., and full-service brokerage offices in 47 states and internationally. Online banking products and services can be accessed through www.firstunion.com.

Important Notice: First Union Securities is the trade name under which Charlotte based First Union Corporation conducts its investment banking, merger and acquisition, asset management and mutual fund, brokerage and insurance businesses.

First Union Securities includes: (1) First Union Securities, Inc. (“FUSI”), a registered broker-dealer and member NYSE/NASD and SIPC providing investment banking, merger and acquisition advisory and brokerage services to corporations, individuals and other institutions throughout the United States; (2) First Clearing Corporation (“FCC”), a separately registered broker-dealer and member NYSE/NASD and SIPC, providing securities clearance and settlement services; (3) the Capital Markets and Capital Management Groups within First Union National Bank (“FUNB”), a national banking association, and its subsidiaries, providing asset management, lending, structured finance risk management, derivatives, and fiduciary services to institutions and individuals; (4) various subsidiaries within First Union Corporation providing investment advisory, administrative and other services to the Evergreen and Mentor families of mutual funds; and (5) various wholly-owned state insurance agencies.

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