HEERLEN, The Netherlands - DSM and Roche announced today that the contract to acquire Roche's vitamins, carotenoids and fine chemicals business has been signed.

This transaction is subject to approval by the anti-trust authorities. Roche and DSM anticipate that the closing will take place in the spring of 2003. The transfer of this business fits perfectly in the strategic focusing of both companies.

DSM will pay a transaction price of EUR 1.95 billion to Roche, EUR 1.85 billion in cash plus 2.24 million DSM shares with a value of approximately EUR 100 million. For this purpose, DSM will purchase these shares on the market and deliver them to Roche. The difference to the transaction value indicated in September 2002 of EUR 2.25 billion is a result from the continued slow-down of the world's economies and the weakening of the value of the USD versus the Swiss Franc, which both had a negative impact on the vitamin business performance compared to earlier forecasts. This price after considering the net book value and the terms of the agreement, results in an accounting impairment of operating assets of 1.65 billion Swiss Francs, which will be recorded in the 2002 Roche Group year-end results. As announced earlier, the present and potential future liabilities from the vitamin price fixing case will remain with Roche.

Peter Elverding, DSM's Managing Board Chairman comments: "I am delighted that DSM and Roche have reached final agreement. The discussions with Roche over the last months have confirmed the fundamental attractiveness of these businesses, and its potential for result improvement. I am confident that this acquisition is a major reinforcement of the DSM Group, and that it will be earnings-per-share enhancing right away. For DSM this transaction is a very significant strategic step in our ongoing transformation into a specialties company."

Franz B. Humer, Chairman and CEO of Roche said: "The sale of the division brings a significant part of our history to an end. The transfer of our vitamins business takes place at a time when the world's economies are facing important challenges. We therefore are very pleased that an agreement was reached with DSM, a company which in combination with our vitamins unit will have a unique and coherent portfolio of businesses and leading technologies. This is a solid basis offering excellent prospects and continuity to the division and its employees. For Roche, this agreement allows to further focus our group on our two high-tech pillars, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics to further establish our position as a leading, innovation driven healthcare company."

About the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division

Since pioneering the industrial synthesis of vitamin C in 1934, Roche has been the leading manufacturer of vitamins. Today the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division offers a wide range of products to help improve nutrition and prevent and treat disease. The division researches, produces, markets and supplies vitamins, carotenoids, citric acid and other fine chemicals for animal feed, food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. In the first nine months of 2002 the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division achieved sales of 2.574 billion Swiss Francs. It employs about 7,300 people.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-oriented healthcare groups. The company's two core businesses in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics provide innovative products and services that address prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, thus enhancing people's health and quality of life. The two core businesses achieved a turnover of 19.3 billion Swiss Francs in the first three quarters of 2002 and employed about 57,000 people worldwide.

Consumer brands including vitamins such as 'Supradyn', 'Berocca' and 'Redoxon' are part of Roche Consumer Health, the Group's over-the-counter medicines unit and therefore not included in this transaction. On 26th February 2003 Roche will announce the annual results of 2002.

For further information about Roche please visit www.roche.com.

About DSM

DSM is active worldwide in life science products, performance materials and industrial chemicals. The group had sales of EUR 5.2 billion in the first nine months of 2002 and employed about 19,000 people.

DSM ranks among the global leaders in many of its fields. The company's strategic aim is to grow its sales - partly through acquisitions - to a level of approx. EUR 10 billion by 2005. By that time at least 80% of sales should be generated by specialties, i.e. advanced chemical and biotechnological products for the life science industry and performance materials. This strategy represents a continuation of the company's ongoing transformation and concentration on global leadership positions in high-added-value activities. DSM will announce the annual results of 2002 on 12th February 2003. More information about DSM can be found at www.dsm.com.