BATON ROUGE, La. and FRANKFURT, Germany, Jan. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) and International Chemical Investors Group ("ICIG") announced today that Albemarle Chemicals SAS, a wholly owned affiliate of Albemarle Corporation, has completed the sale of its facility in Port de Bouc, France to Azur Chimie SAS, a wholly owned affiliate of ICIG, effective December 31, 2008. Albemarle has transferred to Azur Chimie all equipment, buildings, land and certain other assets at the Port de Bouc, France plant. Azur Chimie will toll manufacture certain products for Albemarle. As a result of the sale, Albemarle expects to incur a pre-tax charge of approximately $25 to $30 million in the 4th quarter of 2008.

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"We are very pleased to complete this transaction in such a timely and orderly fashion and to continue our mutually beneficial relationship with ICIG," said Ron Gardner, Vice President of Albemarle's Fine Chemicals segment. "This strategic divestiture will position us to better focus on our core business initiatives."

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics; petroleum and petrochemical processing; transportation and industrial products; pharmaceuticals; agricultural products; and construction and packaging materials. The Company operates in three business segments -- Polymer Additives, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals, and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Learn more about Albemarle at http://www.albemarle.com.

About International Chemical Investors

International Chemical Investors Group is a privately held investment company focusing on mid-sized chemicals businesses. Since inception in 2004, ICIG has acquired 14 independent chemicals businesses with total sales of approximately euros 600 million. Learn more about ICIG at http://www.ic-investors.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE Albemarle Corporation