Hardinge Board Of Directors Unanimously Recommends Rejection Of Romi’s $10 Per Share Tender Offer

Hardinge Inc. (NASDAQ: HDNG) (“Hardinge”) today announced that its Board of Directors voted unanimously to recommend that Hardinge shareholders reject the $10.00 per common share cash tender offer (the “Offer”) from Indústrias Romi S.A. (Bovespa: ROMI3) (“Romi”), which the Board believes is highly inadequate, opportunistic, and not in the best interests of Hardinge and its shareholders.

The Company is filing an Amended Schedule 14D-9 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) detailing the reasons for its rejection of Romi’s offer. The full text of the filing will be available in the Investor Relations section of Hardinge’s website at http://www.hardinge.com and on the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov/.

Kyle H. Seymour, Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hardinge, said, “Our Board strongly recommends that shareholders reject Romi’s current $10.00 per share offer and not tender their shares. We have carefully reviewed this new offer and believe that it is still highly inadequate and opportunistic, and not in the best interests of Hardinge and its shareholders. We continue to believe the ongoing implementation of Hardinge’s strategic plan will deliver significant value to our shareholders. We have never hidden from Romi our views on Hardinge’s valuation and prospects and in our view their ‘best and final’ $10.00 offer does not reflect full and fair value for Hardinge.”

Richard L. Simons, President & Chief Executive Officer of Hardinge, added, “The industrial sector and the machine tool industry is beginning to see signs of a recovery, as evidenced by our own strong order rates and improved outlook. As we have said previously, Hardinge is well positioned to benefit from a recovery, and with our streamlined operating structure, we are poised to outperform our peers as the market continues to improve. Hardinge shareholders recognize the significant upside potential inherent in our business plan and operations. If Romi is serious that $10.00 is its ‘best and final’ price, both companies should be able to move past the distraction of this bid and get on with the business of building value for our respective shareholders.”