NEW YORK, December 12, 2005 - Castle Harlan, Inc., a leading New York private equity investment firm, has won the award for the 2005 International/Cross Border Deal of the Year for its acquisition of Polypipe Group, a major supplier of plastic pipe systems in the United Kingdom, Ireland and parts of Europe, the firm reported today.

The honor was presented by Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor, an industry newsletter, at a black-tie dinner in New York. Howard Morgan, a senior managing director who led Castle Harlan's acquisition team, accepted the award for the firm.

"We had a fabulous team from our shop," Morgan commented, "very supportive lenders and other advisors that persevered to meet a tight timetable set by the seller during August in Europe, when many professionals are distracted with summer holidays. I think we were particularly creative with the seller, in aligning what we were prepared to do with their price expectations, debt financing and the business realities of Polypipe."

Morgan added, "We think Polypipe is a good business, and look forward to partnering with the management team, 38 of whom have invested with us, to make it a great business. Hopefully, this award is a positive predictor of our ultimate investment returns."

Barry Kaplan, managing editor of The M&A Advisor, who oversaw the panel of judges and tallied the result, said: "In my personal view, the Polypipe deal, on the basis of the description provided by Brown Gibbons Lang, the investment bank that nominated the deal, was a fascinatingly complex transaction, with admirable persistence on the buy side and great acumen (if not just plain 'smarts')."

Castle Harlan won the same award two years ago for its role in the acquisition of Austar United Communications, Inc., the leading provider of satellite pay television in most of non-urban Australia. That transaction had also won the 2003 award for Media and Telecommunications Deal of the Year. Castle Harlan had joined with its Australian affiliate, CHAMP Private Equity, to purchase Austar in 2003.

Castle Harlan purchased Polypipe in early September for £293 million (approximately $527 million) from IMI plc, an international engineering firm based in London. Polypipe's headquarters is in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England.

Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America and Europe. Its team of 11 managing directors, including its founders, has completed 45 acquisitions since its inception with a total value in excess of $7 billion. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s.

Castle Harlan's portfolio companies, which employ more than 31,000 people, include Ames True Temper, a leading manufacturer of lawn and garden tools and accessories; Horizon Lines, one of the largest U.S. container shipping companies; and Caribbean Restaurants Inc., which operates the exclusive Burger King franchise in Puerto Rico with 173 units.