Metalico Adds to Portfolio of Companies

Metalico, Inc. has entered into separate agreements to purchase substantially all of the operating assets of two affiliated catalytic converter recyclers located in Texas and Mississippi.

American CatCon Holdings, LLC, recovers platinum group metals from scrap ceramic and metallic substrate automotive catalytic converters at its principal location in Buda, Texas. The company also maintains a buying center in Dallas. American Cat Con, LLC conducts a similar business in Gulfport, Miss.

Allen Hickman, Jr., the founder of the Texas seller, will be joining Metalico as general manager of the combined operation. The buyer will be retaining all of the sellers' management and operational employees.

"These acquisitions provide us with an opportunity to further expand our catalytic converter business both geographically and in terms of volume with a pair of well-run and rapidly growing companies," said Carlos Agueero, Metalico's president and CEO. "They also fit perfectly with our strategy to be broadly diversified in metal recycling along with our base-metals recycling operations."

"In addition, we continue to see a robust pipeline of high-caliber acquisition opportunities in new, existing, and contiguous geographic markets," Agueero said. "Provided that debt and equity capital markets are accessible on commercially acceptable terms, Metalico intends to be very active on the acquisition front in 2008.

"We are currently in advanced stages of due diligence and negotiations with significant additional ferrous and non-ferrous scrap recycling operations. We can never be sure we'll get everything done, but if we're successful we anticipate major increases in our assets and revenues in 2008 over and above what the CatCon acquisitions will provide."