Cinergy Solutions to provide utility services to Celanese Acetate

CINCINNATI, May 2, 2003 -- Cinergy Solutions, an affiliate of Cinergy Corp., has reached an agreement to supply utility services to Celanese Acetate manufacturing facilities in Virginia and South Carolina.

Cinergy Solutions will acquire the utility facilities at Celanese's Narrows, Virginia, and Rock Hill, South Carolina, sites and provide steam, compressed air, and treated water, among other services, under a 20-year agreement. Cinergy Solutions is an Ohio-based company specializing in energy outsourcing and cogeneration for large industrial customers. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"We are extremely pleased that Celanese selected us to provide these critical utility services," said Tim Ferguson, vice president of Cinergy Solutions. "We have had significant success with other industrial partners, and this is yet another opportunity to demonstrate our capability for improving the quality, reliability, and efficiency of energy generation and usage."

"Because Cinergy Solutions specializes in energy generation for large industrial companies like ours, this arrangement will enable us to improve our sites' productivity and reliability, while lowering our operating and maintenance costs," said Bek Humelsine, vice president of U.S. manufacturing. "Taking advantage of their expertise in utility operations will make a significant contribution to the success of our company while enabling us to focus on manufacturing quality acetate products."

As part of the agreement, Cinergy Solutions will design and build certain modifications required by the facilities to improve reliability. The Narrows complex manufactures acetate flake, fiber and filament. It is Celanese's largest such operation in North America and requires highly reliable supplies of steam and electricity to process raw wood fibers into the various products. The Rock Hill operation processes raw wood fiber into acetate flake and requires utility services and reliability comparable to the Narrows facility.

Cinergy Solutions is an affiliate of Cinergy Corp., one of the nation's leading diversified energy companies with assets of $13 billion. Cinergy Solutions focuses on cogeneration, energy services and utility outsourcing for large industrials, municipalities, universities and other large energy consumers. Its customers include BP Amoco, Kodak, Procter & Gamble, and General Motors.

Celanese Acetate, a business of Celanese AG, is the world's largest acetate producer. Its products are found in women's and men's apparel fashions, linings, home furnishings and industrial end uses. Celanese acetate products are manufactured in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Belgium and Asia.