Disposal

Tate & Lyle PLC
7 June 2001


               Sale of Western Sugar Agreed by Tate & Lyle                  

Tate & Lyle PLC ('Tate & Lyle') announces the sale of the Western Sugar
Company ('Western') to the Rocky Mountain Sugar Growers Co-operative
('RMSGC'). The sale agreement was signed on 6 June 2001 and follows the
signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding on 16 October 2000. The
disposal is conditional on RMSGC finalising the necessary financing
arrangements.

The consideration will be US$96million (£68 million) (subject to closing
adjustments) plus a further maximum earnout of US$30m (£21million) payable
after June 2003. The earnout is based on sales revenues. 

The sum of US$75 million (£53 million) will be paid in cash by the completion
date together with US$21 million (£15 million) in instalments commencing
November 2001 and ending June 2003. Proceeds of the sale will be used to
reduce Group debt. 

A further write-down on the planned sale of Western amounting to £36 million
has been included in the results for the year ended 31 March 2001. This is in
addition to the £75 million written down in the first half of the year (which
included £25 million of goodwill previously written off to reserves).  The
effect of these exceptional write-downs on shareholders funds is a reduction
of £86 million.

Included in the sale are Western's six beet factories in Nebraska, Wyoming,
Colorado and Montana. The value at 31 March 2001 of Western's net assets
(after the write-downs), adjusted to reflect the terms of the transaction, was
US$92million (£65 million).   Losses before interest attributable to these net
assets in the 12 months to March 2001 amounted to US$5.3 million (£3.6
million).  

Larry Pillard, Tate & Lyle Chief Executive said: 

'This is a major step towards delivering our strategy to divest of non core or
non performing assets and focus on value added businesses that offer more
stable future earnings. The disposal of Western follows the disposals of
Bundaberg and ten other businesses last year and of Zambia Sugar in April.'


Enquiries:

Mark Robinson        020 7626 6525
Chris Fox            020 7626 6525 (Press)