Notification of Major Interest in Shares

TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARES

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuerof existing shares to which voting rights areattached:

Filtrona Plc

2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):

An acquisition or disposal of voting rights

X

An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached

An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments

An event changing the breakdown of voting rights

Other (please specify):

3. Full name of person(s) subject to thenotification obligation:

TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC

Teachers Advisors, Inc.

4. Full name of shareholder(s)  (if different from 3.):

See Number 3

5. Date of the transaction and date onwhich the threshold is crossed orreached:

16 May 2012

6. Date on which issuer notified:

18 May 2012

7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed orreached:

Below the threshold of 5%

8. Notified details:

A: Voting rights attached to shares

Class/type ofshares

if possible usingthe ISIN CODE

Situation previousto the triggeringtransaction

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

NumberofShares

NumberofVotingRights

Numberof shares

Number of votingrights

% of voting rights

Direct

Direct

Indirect

Direct

Indirect

GB00B0744359

10,580,123

10,580,123

10,453,216

10,453,216

0

4.984%

0%

B: Qualifying Financial Instruments

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Type of financialinstrument

Expirationdate

Exercise/Conversion Period

Number of votingrights that may beacquired if theinstrument isexercised/ converted.

% of votingrights

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

C: Financial Instruments with similar economic effect to Qualifying Financial Instruments

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Type of financialinstrument

Exercise price

Expiration date

Exercise/Conversion period

Number of voting rights instrument refers to

% of voting rights

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Nominal

Delta

N/A

N/A

Total (A+B+C)

Number of voting rights

Percentage of voting rights

10,453,216

4.984%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or thefinancial instruments are effectively held, if applicable:

The College Retirement Equities Fund ("CREF") hereby informs you that on May 16, 2012, CREF sold 126,907 shares of Filtrona Plc, bringing its total holdings in your company to 2,911,232 shares. CREF owns these shares through one of its investment accounts, the Stock Account. It is our understanding the total voting shares outstanding of Filtrona Plc are 209,719,600 bringing CREF's ownership in your company to a 1.388% level.

For your information, CREF is a U.S. based investment company, which is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). CREF has multiple investment accounts, each with separate investment objectives and policies. All assets in the accounts are beneficially owned by CREF, and all the accounts are managed by TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser.

Additionally, affiliates of CREF own 7,541,984 shares of Filtrona Plc. These holdings are owned by the TIAA-CREF Funds ("Funds"), and the TIAA-CREF Life Funds ("Life Funds"), each of which are SEC registered investment companies. The Funds and Life Funds are managed by Teachers Advisors, Inc., an SEC registered investment adviser that is affiliated with TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC. These affiliated funds, aggregated with those of CREF, own a total of 10,453,216 or 4.984% of the outstanding voting shares of your company. Because Teachers Advisors, Inc. and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC follow the same policies when voting these funds, we are aggregating the holdings for purposes of this letter.

Proxy Voting:

10. Name of the proxy holder:

TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC/ Teachers Advisors, Inc.

11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will ceaseto hold:

N/A

12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to holdvoting rights:

N/A

13. Additional information:

None

14. Contact name:

Patricia Kendall - Filtrona plc

15. Contact telephone number:

01908 359100