Aventis Environmental Science, a business unit of Aventis CropScience, announced on Tuesday 5th February that it has reached an agreement with the Clorox company to purchase its MAXFORCE� brand and products for the professional pest control markets. Clorox will continue to sell its consumer insecticides, including those sold under COMBAT� and BLACK FLAG� brands, to the consumer market. The parties agreed not to disclose the price of the transaction.

Under the terms of the agreement, Aventis Environmental Science will have the global rights to sell MAXFORCE� to the professional pest control markets. Aventis Environmental Science is already the exclusive distributor for MAXFORCE� in Europe, and also sells MAXFORCE� in south America.

"We are pleased with the acquisition of the MAXFORCE� brand and products" said Pascal Housset, CEO of Aventis Environmental Science. "MAXFORCE� completes our portfolio of high-performance, professional products for pest control and fills a geographical gap".

MAXFORCE� is currently sold in more than 100 countries and offers a wide range of bait products to control ants and cockroaches. For more information on Aventis, you may wish to visit their site:
www.cropscience.aventis.com