DES PLAINES, IL -- Littelfuse, Inc. announced it has received the approvals needed under German securities law to enable it to fully integrate Heinrich Industrie AG into Littelfuse. At their annual meeting on May 12, Heinrich shareholders approved resolutions allowing Littelfuse to combine the two businesses and to start a legal process to purchase the remaining 2.8 percent of the outstanding Heinrich shares. The resolution allowing Littelfuse to move forward with integration was subsequently registered with the German court.

"Our strategy in acquiring Heinrich was to add the company's highly respected line of circuit protection products to our portfolio. We also recognized opportunities to take cost out of the Heinrich business and improve its margins, which are currently below those of the Littelfuse base business. We plan to begin integrating the U.S. operations of Heinrich first, and then combine the operations in Europe and Asia," said Gordon Hunter, chief executive officer.

"While Heinrich has already taken some steps to reduce costs, until now we were unable to combine the operations of the two companies, which is expected to produce significant cost savings. We anticipate that we will begin seeing the benefits of the integration near the end of this year and into 2006," said Hunter.

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