Chase announces sale of Sunburst EMS

Chase Corporation ("CHASE") announced the sale of its Sunburst Electronics Manufacturing Solutions, Inc. subsidiary ("Sunburst"). Sunburst is located in West Bridgewater, MA and has been sold to the Edward L. Chase Revocable Trust (the "Trust") in exchange for shares of CHASE common stock currently held by the Trust. The closing date of the transaction is December 10, 2003 with an effective date for accounting purposes of December 1, 2003. The purchase price of $3,000,000 will consist of approximately 230,000 shares of CHASE common stock based on its average closing price over the 20 trading days ending December 5, 2003 (the "Average Closing Price"). Concurrent with this transaction, CHASE has also agreed to purchase 250,000 shares of common stock held by the Trust at the Average Closing Price, having an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3,255,000. These shares, totaling approximately 480,000, will be put into the Treasury by the Company. The sale of Sunburst will result in an accounting charge of approximately $600,000, which will be recorded in the first quarter of fiscal 2004, and represents the write down of the book value of the Sunburst business to its current market value, as required by generally accepted accounting principles. Peter R. Chase, President and CEO, stated, "Circumstances presented a unique opportunity to combine the sale of Sunburst with a share repurchase which will reduce the concentration of ownership. We believe that this is an important step in providing liquidity and value for all owners as well as allowing Chase to focus resources toward areas with higher potential return." First quarter revenues and net income from recurring operations are expected to provide revenue and net income improvement over the prior year and we look forward to further progress during fiscal 2004. Management also continues to look for investment opportunities that will increase overall shareholder value through stock appreciation and continued dividend growth. Source: PCBnewsline