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Dec 1, 2000 12:00 PM, MODERN BULK TRANSPORTER STAFF

Royal Vopak has made a recommended cash offer to purchase all of the issued shares of Ellis & Everard, and to be issued ordinary shares in the company. The offer, which values the current issued ordinary share capital of Ellis & Everard at about GBP 310 million (US $443 million), is being supported unanimously by the Ellis & Everard board of directors.

A combined Royal Vopak and Ellis & Everard creates one of the world's leading chemical distribution companies and further solidifies Vopak's position in the United States.

Royal Vopak reported sales in 1999 from worldwide chemical distribution activities of Euro 2.8 billion. Ellis & Everard's sales for the comparable period were US $1.3 billion, 60% of which occurred in the United States, 23% in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the balance elsewhere in Europe. On a pro-forma, combined basis for fiscal year 1999, Vopak and Ellis & Everard's US business would have represented chemical distribution sales in North America of US $2.7 billion. Vopak Distribution Europe, combined with Ellis & Everard's UK and European sales, on a pro-forma basis for 1999, would have resulted in sales of Euro 1.4 billion.