President of Swiss Takeover Board rejects request to extend Ciba offer period

Ludwigshafen, Germany .– In a letter dated October 15, 2008, the president of the Swiss Takeover Board has rejected a request from the Bestinver investor group to extend the offer period for the public takeover offer to shareholders of Ciba Holding AG and to supplement the Board of Directors’ Report and the Fairness Opinion (an opinion from an independent expert on the financial adequacy of the offer price). As a result, the offer period will end on October 28, 2008 (4:00 p.m. Central European Time, CET) as designated in the offer prospectus.

“We welcome this decision and are very confident that more than the minimum requirement of 66.67 percent of shares will be tendered by the end of the offer period,“ said BASF spokesman Michael Grabicki.

BASF will pay Ciba shareholders CHF 50.00 in cash for each nominal share in Ciba. The offer corresponds to a premium of 32 percent above the closing price for Ciba’s shares on September 12, 2008 and a premium of 60 percent above the volume-weighted average share price for Ciba shares in the 30 days prior to announcement of the public takeover offer on September 15, 2008. All information about BASF’s offer, including the offer prospectus, is available on the Internet at www.basf-info.com. The shareholders of Ciba Holding AG have been informed about the offer and the steps required to accept it either through their custodian banks or directly by the Ciba share registrar in the event that shareholders keep their share certificates themselves.