Morton International, Inc., which operates in the Specialty Chemicals and Salt business segments, manufactures and markets a wide range of products for industrial and consumer use in the United States and abroad. Morton had sales of $2.53 billion during fiscal 1998 vs. $2.34 billion during fiscal 1997. Morton's roots trace back to 1848 with the founding of Richmond & Company, Agents for Onondaga Salt. In 1910, the Company was renamed the Morton Salt Company. The Company's involvement in the chemical processing industry grew, as Morton became a major supplier of basic inorganic chemicals derived from salt. The Company changed its name to Morton International, Inc. in 1965 and, in 1968, began applying pyrotechnic chemical processes to the development of automotive airbags, eventually becoming the world's largest producer of airbag inflators and modules. In November 1996, Morton spun off its airbag business and combined it with the business of Autoliv AB of Sweden.During calendar 1997, Morton renewed its focus on salt and specialty chemicals with the acquisition of the French salt company Salins du Midi. With this acquisition, Morton became the largest salt company in the world. The Company also purchased Pulverlac, a premier powder coatings company in Italy. SPECIALTY CHEMICALS The Specialty Chemicals segment manufactures a wide variety of high technology and specialized chemical products for a multitude of customer applications. Western Europe and North America are the major geographic markets served. The segment conducts chemical operations through four groups: Adhesives & Polymers, Chemical Specialties, Coatings, and Electronic Materials. The Adhesives & Polymers group produces laminating adhesives (used primarily in food packaging to bond paper, film, or foil) and industrial adhesives (used for bonding rigid substrates, such as rubber to metal or panels used in construction).The Group also produces adhesives for extrudable specialty products used in the coextrusion process to manufacture multi-layer plastic film, sheet and bottles. Other major product lines manufactured by this group include thermoplastic polyurethanes, water-based polymers and automotive adhesives. The Chemical Specialties group manufactures liquid dye markers that are added to petroleum products for identification purposes and other dyes and coloring products used in printing and writing inks. In fiscal 1998, Morton signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Boston Advanced Technologies giving Morton's dye business the technology to introduce a new marker system that includes portable testing equipment for detecting markers in fuel samples. Other major products from this group include sodium borohydride (used in paper manufacturing); polysulfide polymers (used in the production of sealants, rubber products,coatings and solid rocket fuel); heat stabilizers and lubricants used in the construction industry; industrial biocides for the protection of plastic products; and metalorganics (used in solar cells, high-speed chips and light-emitting diodes). Advanced Materials, another business in this group, manufactures crystalline substrates for lenses used in lasers and optical devices, as well as silicon carbide for semiconductor processing equipment, wear parts, reflective optics and computer hard drive heads and disks. The Coatings group manufactures and markets a wide range of automotive, commercial and industrial coatings products. Products include customized performance liquid coatings, principally used on plastic components and parts in automotive markets; protective and decorative powder coatings employed on metal, wood and plastic substrates in commercial and automotive markets; coil coatings,extrusion coatings and other general industrial coatings for application to aluminum and steel substrates; and conventional and durable highway marking coatings products and application equipment. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998, the Company announced plans to divest two product lines: highway marking and injected colorants

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