| SOUTHAMPTON, Pa., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Environmental
Tectonics Corporation (Amex: ETC) today announced it had concluded a major
refinancing with PNC Bank, National Association and H.F. Lenfest. The
transaction includes a $19.8 million senior credit facility provided by
PNC Bank and a $10 million senior subordinated loan by H.F. Lenfest. A
portion of the proceeds from the refinancing were used to satisfy all of ETC's
obligations to its former lender. The remaining proceeds will be used to
support growth. PNC Bank, an indirect subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC), the largest bank headquartered in Pennsylvania and a major regional lender in the Philadelphia area, offers comprehensive and customized financial solutions to businesses, including international letters of credit and Export-Import financing. As part of the agreement, a representative of H.F. Lenfest will join ETC's Board of Directors. According to William F. Mitchell, ETC's Chairman and President, "The culmination of ETC's major refinancing, an effort which has been over a year in the making, should allow us to refocus our efforts on executing our strategic initiatives and addressing the growth goals of our business units. I welcome the valuable Board input from Mr. Lenfest's representative." ETC will file a Current Report on Form 8-K describing the refinancing in detail with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the near future. ETC designs, develops, installs and maintains aircrew training systems, public entertainment systems, process simulation systems (sterilization and environmental), clinical hyperbaric systems, environmental testing and simulation systems, and related products for domestic and international customers. This press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ETC has based these forward- looking statements on its current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about ETC that may cause its actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any other future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "would," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "continue," or the negative of such terms or similar expressions. Factors that might cause or contribute to such a discrepancy include, but are not limited to, contract cancellations, political unrest in customer countries, general economic conditions, and those issues identified from time to time in ETC's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other public documents, including, without limitation, ETC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 22, 2002. |
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