[VALHI LOGO GOES HERE] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESS RELEASE - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: VALHI, INC. Bobby D. O'Brien Three Lincoln Centre Vice President 5430 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1700 (972) 233-1700 Dallas, Texas 75240-2697 VALHI ANNOUNCES PROPOSAL TO MERGE WITH TREMONT DALLAS, TEXAS . . . July 26, 2002 . . . Valhi, Inc. (NYSE: VHI) announced today that it has made a proposal to merge Valhi and Tremont Corporation (NYSE: TRE). Valhi directly and indirectly owns 5,154,588 shares of the common stock of Tremont, representing approximately 80% of the 6,424,858 shares of Tremont currently outstanding. Of such shares held directly and indirectly by Valhi, NL Industries, Inc. (NYSE: NL), a majority-owned subsidiary of Valhi, indirectly owns 1,036,167 of the Tremont shares. Approximately 94% of the 115,118,917 outstanding shares of Valhi are held by Contran Corporation and related entities. The proposal states that stockholders of Tremont common stock (including NL) other than Valhi would receive between 2 shares and 2.5 shares of Valhi common stock for each Tremont share held. Valhi, Inc. is engaged in the titanium dioxide pigments, component products (ergonomic computer support systems, precision ball bearing slides and security products), titanium metals products, waste management industries and other businesses. * * * * *