General Meeting of Ciba Holding Inc.

* Merger agreement with BASF Specialty Chemicals Holding GmbH approved
* Ciba Holding Inc. to be dissolved on entry of the merger in the Commercial Register
* Shareholders to receive cash compensation of CHF 50 per share

Basel, Switzerland.- At the Annual General Meeting of Ciba Holding Inc., held at the Congress Center Basel on June 23, 2009, the shareholders approved by a large majority all the motions proposed by the Board of Directors. The 29 shareholders in attendance represented 67,439,961 of the votes, or 97.65 percent of the 69,064,617 registered shares.



The shareholders voted in favor of the merger of BASF Specialty Chemicals Holding GmbH as the receiving company and Ciba Holding Inc. as the transferring company with cash compensation and approved the merger agreement concluded by the two companies on May 15, 2009. Ciba Holding Inc. will be dissolved on entry of the merger in the Commercial Register. Cash compensation of CHF 50 per share will be paid out for all remaining shares of Ciba Holding Inc., subject to successful registration of the merger within the next seven days.



In addition, the shareholders endorsed the proposal of the Board of Directors not to pay out any dividends and voted for the discharge of the Board of Directors and the management from liability for their activities in 2008. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Engel, Dr. Jörg Buchmüller und Hans-Walther Reiners were all re-elected as Members of the Board for a term of four years or until the merger is officially entered in the Commercial Register, in accordance with the merger agreement.