Disposal

Disposal 

    LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2002--

Tate & Lyle PLC - Disposal


Tate & Lyle PLC: Conditional sale of monosodium glutamate unit to Ajinomoto

Tate & Lyle PLC ('Tate & Lyle') announces that it has today entered
into an agreement for the sale of its monosodium glutamate (MSG)
production unit in France to Ajinomoto Co., Inc. ('Ajinomoto'). The
sale is conditional on approval by the competition authorities of a
number of countries.

The transaction will be the sale of the shares in Orsan S.A.
('Orsan'), held by Amylum France, a subsidiary of Tate & Lyle. These
shares represent 80.39% of the issued capital of Orsan (this
percentage will rise to 87.68% by the time of completion due to a
pre-completion reorganisation of Orsan). Ajinomoto is the minority
shareholder with, currently, 19.61% of the shares in issue (12.32% by
the time of completion). Orsan operates the MSG plant adjacent to the
Amylum France wheat processing plant in Nesle. The Orsan and Amylum
France operations have been fully segregated so Amylum France will not
be affected by the sale operationally, although it will continue to
provide utilities, feed stock and other services to Ajinomoto under
long term agreements.

The sale excludes Orsan's 51% shareholding in Orsan Guangzhou Gourmet
Powder Company Limited ('Orsan China') which produces MSG in China.

At 31March 2002, Orsan S. A. (excluding Orsan China) had a total net
asset value of £42 million and losses before tax attributable to these
net assets in the 12 months to 31 March 2002 amounted to £6.5 million.
In the six months to 30 September 2002, the business broke even.
Proceeds of the sale will be used to reduce Group debt.

The anticipated loss on disposal will be £14.5 million (which includes
£9.1 million of goodwill previously written off to reserves)

Larry Pillard, Tate & Lyle PLC Chief Executive comments: 'The disposal
is another step in Tate & Lyle's ongoing strategy to divest of
non-core or underperforming businesses and product lines.'


For more information contact:

Mark Robinson     020 7626 6525

   Short Name: Tate & Lyle PLC
   Category Code: DIS
   Sequence Number: 00001267
   Time of Receipt (offset from UTC): 20021121T082735+0000