Thermax clarifies on suit filed by Purolite in US

With reference to the news item appearing in leading financial daily titled "Purolite of US files espionage suit against Thermax", Thermax Ltd has clarified about the following:

"The litigation referred in the article report is in fact two years old, commenced in May 2005 and disclosed in the Company's Annual Report of 2005-06.

Thermax is a well-respected global solution provider in the field of energy and environment, with a strong line of ion exchange resin products distributed in the United States.

In contrast to the allegations in this report, Thermax has never used, and has no need to use, any Purolite information in any of its products. The chemical division of Thermax started manufacturing in 1970, more than a decade before the inception of Purolite, and had a full range of gel and macroporous resins in its portfolio long before Purolite had even begun manufacturing and marketing its product. Notwithstanding Purolite's continued request to a US District Court for relief, no court ever prohibited Thermax from selling, or Thermax customers from buying any of Thermax products.

At present, Thermax has hundreds of different verities of ion exchange resins for various applications in water treatments and specialty areas such as pharma, biotech, catalyst, sugar, metal recovery and more. All of these products were developed by Thermax in-house with highly qualified R&D and products development teams engaged in collaborative efforts with industry experts and various government and non-governments research labs.

In fact, Purolite has hired away Thermax's key technical and finance employees in the past, who possessed comprehensive knowledge of Thermax processes for manufacturing of ion exchange resins and products costings, for start up of its own manufacturing facilities.

Purolite's litigation against Thermax is an attempt to restrict the employment of talented staff and management personnel who were not subject to any restrictive covenant when they freely chose to leave Purolite to come to work for Thermax. And, while Thermax discovered that one of these employees was in possession of certain Purolite documents after his departure from Purolite, these documents were returned, the employee was suspended and evidence was introduced showing that these Purolite materials were never circulated within Thermax or discussed with any Thermax personnel.

In contrast, Purolite has repeatedly failed to provide any evidence that any of its information has been used by Thermax in any way.

Unable to convince a court that Thermax has done anything improper, Purolite has now mischaracterized the litigation in an attempt to malign Thermax's reputation in the industry attacks which are particularly offensive coming from a competitor whose reputation was so recently tarnished by its admission to crimes against the United States under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

We regret Purolite's attempt to use media as a vehicle for its defamatory comments and as part of its strategy to put obstacles in Thermax's business plans in the US. Thermax has filed a counter business interference motion Purolite in the US."

Source : Equity Bulls

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