ANN ARBOR, MI - 17 March, 2003 - Flint Ink Corporation of Ann Arbor, MI, and the Sicpa Group of Lausanne, Switzerland, have finalized several business transactions in which Flint Ink has acquired Sicpa's worldwide heatset and coldset ink business and Sicpa has acquired Flint Ink's worldwide business for security inks used on currency and other negotiable instruments. Closing occurred on Friday, 14 March, 2003. "The exchange supports each company's business strengths," states Flint Ink President Dave Frescoln. "Flint Ink is a leading manufacturer of news and publication printing inks, while Sicpa inks are used on the majority of the world's banknotes." He added that the transaction did not include any of the security technology associated with brand protection or supply chain management that Flint Ink is currently exploring with alliance partners. The acquisition adds significantly to the heatset and coldset printing ink business for Flint-Schmidt GmbH & Co KG in Europe. Production will be transferred to Flint-Schmidt facilities in Cologne, Germany, 's-Gravenzande, the Netherlands, Wolverhampton, England and a new facility in Finland. "Flint-Schmidt is the leading European producer of Publication Gravure inks and is a major producer of heatset and coldset inks. The addition of Sicpa's publication heatset and news ink business gives us a strong competitive position in these two segments," says Helmut Schmidt, President and COO of Flint-Schmidt. The acquisition will similarly add to Flint Ink's market share in Australia and New Zealand. According to Damian Johnson, President of Flint Ink India/Pacific, "Flint Ink is investing significantly to upgrade facilities in this region in order to give customers a viable alternative. We believe this is a positive acquisition for the Australian and New Zealand marketplace. In particular, we will now be able to bring to the News Ink market the benefits of dealing with the world's leader in ink technology for newspaper printing."