Disposal

Johnson,Matthey PLC
23 July 2004




                                     For immediate release Friday 23rd July 2004

             Johnson Matthey Sells Pigments & Dispersions Business


Johnson Matthey announces that it has agreed to sell its Pigments & Dispersions
business to a subsidiary of Rockwood Specialties Group, Inc., a leading
specialty chemicals and advanced materials company, for £27.0 million in cash.
The transaction is conditional upon regulatory approval in Germany.



Pigments & Dispersions is part of Johnson Matthey's Colours & Coatings Division.
It manufactures and sells specialist inorganic pigments to the surface
coatings and plastics industries, and has factories in Kidsgrove in
Stoke-on-Trent, in Sudbury in Suffolk and in Melbourne, Australia. The business
employs approximately 280 people. In the financial year ending 31st March 2004
Pigments & Dispersions had external sales of £29.9 million (total sales were
£37.8 million including sales to other Johnson Matthey businesses) and made an
operating profit of £2.5 million.



The net assets of the business at 31st March 2004 amounted to £33.6 million.
After writing back £5.8 million of goodwill previously written off to reserves,
the disposal will give rise to an exceptional loss of approximately £12 million
before costs.



In November 2003 Johnson Matthey stated its intention to consider offers for
parts of its Colours & Coatings Division in line with the group's long-term
strategy of focusing on its core activities on Catalysts, Precious Metals and
Pharmaceutical Materials.  As part of this process, the group has also received
offers for its Structural Ceramics business which is currently benefiting from
an upturn and profits are well ahead of last year.  The board considered that
the offers received for Structural Ceramics did not provide adequate value
particularly in view of the favourable outlook for that business.  Consequently,
the business will be retained for the time being.



Commenting on the transaction, Neil Carson, Chief Executive of Johnson Matthey
said:



'The sale of Pigments & Dispersions represents a further step in our strategy of
focusing the group on its core activities in Catalysts, Precious Metals and
Pharmaceutical Materials.  The remaining businesses in Colours & Coatings
Division are performing well and we do not plan to make further disposals unless
we receive offers that generate full value for our shareholders.'



Enquiries:
Ian Godwin                Group Corporate Communications Manager   020 7269 8410
John Sheldrick            Group Finance Director                   020 7269 8438
Howard Lee                The Headland Consultancy                 020 7036 0369
Laura Hickman             Gavin Anderson & Co                      020 7554 1400
www.matthey.com




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