Hillenbrand Industries, Inc. Announces 'Any and All' Cash Tender Offer for Its 4.50 percent Senior Note...( Tender Offer Connected with Previous...),Health

Tender Offer Connected with Previously Announced Plans to Separate Medical

Technology and Funeral Services Businesses

BATESVILLE, Ind., Feb. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hillenbrand Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HB) (the "Company") announced today that it has commenced a cash tender offer to purchase any and all of its outstanding 4.50 percent Senior Notes due 2009 (CUSIP No. 431573AD6), of which $250 million in aggregate principal amount was outstanding as of February 29, 2008, pursuant to an Offer to Purchase dated today (the "Offer to Purchase"), which sets forth a more comprehensive description of the terms of the tender offer.

The tender offer is being conducted in connection with the previously announced separation of the two primary operating companies of Hillenbrand Industries, Hill-Rom, the Company's medical technology business, and Batesville Casket, the Company's funeral service business. The separation is expected to be completed at the end of the Company's second fiscal quarter.

To accomplish the separation, the Company will distribute all of the common stock of Batesville Holdings, Inc., a newly formed holding company for the Company's funeral service business, to the Company's shareholders on a pro rata basis. The tender offer is part of the Company's plan to establish appropriate capital structures for each of the separated companies. The Company expects to fund the purchase of notes tendered in the tender offer with cash on hand and/or with the proceeds of a payment to be made by Batesville Holdings to the Company immediately prior to the completion of the distribution as a cash dividend and/or as a repayment of outstanding notes payable to the Company. The tender offer is conditioned on the c
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