Equifax Insurance Services To Acquire Kroll Associates

ATLANTA and NEW YORK, April 1, 1997 -- The Equifax Insurance Services Group today announced an agreement in principle to acquire Kroll Associates Inc., the world's foremost provider of corporate intelligence and risk management consulting services. This follows last week's announcement that the Insurance Services Group, due to be spun off from Equifax this summer, has selected ChoicePoint as its new company name.

The acquisition of Kroll Associates is expected to be completed shortly after the spinoff. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"This is an important step in furthering our vision of using information to help our customers better manage increasingly complex business risks," said Derek V. Smith, currently Equifax executive vice president and designated president & CEO of ChoicePoint. "Kroll Associates brings unique expertise in corporate intelligence and risk management consulting services, and a depth of experience in diverse industries and markets that is important to our strategy."

"The joining of our consulting strengths with ChoicePoint's information and technology capabilities will create a single resource for risk management services that will be unique in the global marketplace, and which will provide our new company and the professionals associated with it significant new opportunities for growth," said Jules Kroll, founder, chairman and chief executive of Kroll Associates. "Our mission has always been to provide our clients with the highest quality information and counsel they need to identify, respond to and prevent business and personal risks. This joining with ChoicePoint furthers the achievement of that goal."

Kroll Associates Inc., headquartered in New York City, was founded in 1972 and has established itself as the premier international investigative and corporate intelligence consulting firm. It pioneered professional risk assessment, prevention and response services for large corporate clients and has become the acknowledged market leader in the United States and throughout the world. Kroll's client list includes major corporations and organizations throughout the world as well as United States and foreign governments.

Kroll Associates currently employs about 300 people in 22 offices in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America, with relationships with over 1,000 investigations professionals worldwide. The company is expected to continue to operate with its current management team and structure and to retain the Kroll Associates name. Kroll is privately held and does not yet disclose financial results.

Equifax announced last Dec. 9 it would spin off the Insurance Services Group as a separate, independent company. The spinoff is dependent on an IRS ruling that the dividend distribution of stock will be tax-free to shareholders, and is expected to take place this summer. After the spinoff and subsequent approval of the stock exchange, ChoicePoint will be traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CPS.

The Equifax Insurance Services Group, soon to be ChoicePoint, traces its heritage to 1901. It is among the world's largest single-source providers of information and custom systems to mitigate insurance, business and government risk and fraud. Based in Alpharetta, Ga., the company serves more than 5,000 individual customers and institutions worldwide. Last year, as a division of Equifax, the company and its more than 5,000 industry professionals generated $587 million in revenues helping companies and government agencies better manage business risk.