Quadrant Plastics Acquires Majority Interest In Japanese Composites Company

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2005-09-30

Quadrant Plastics Acquires Majority Interest In
Japanese Composites Company

Seattle, WA, USA--(Jobwerx News)--Quadrant Plastics Group to acquire a controlling majority interest in Japan GMT Company, a glass mat thermo plastics composites manufacturer.

Quadrant Plastic Composites (QPC) will acquire a controlling majority interest (80%) in the Japanese GMT manufacturer Japan GMT Co., Ltd. (JGC) from its current shareholders, Ube-Nitto Kasei Co., Ltd. (UNK), Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. (IKC) and Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. (NSG), at the beginning of October 2005. NSG is to retain a 20% stake in JGC. The purchase price is 120 million Yen (1.4 million Swiss francs) in cash. As a result of this strategically motivated move, Quadrant will also become a global manufacturer and supplier in the thermoplastic composites business in the major Japanese industrial market and will further extend its market leadership.

Based in Yokkaichi, near Nagoya, JGC employs a workforce of 50 and develops, manufactures and markets semi-finished products based on glass mat thermoplastics (GMT). In the 2004/2005 financial year the company posted sales of 1.9 billion Yen (22 million Swiss francs), with the Japanese automotive component supply industry accounting for more than half of the total. Products purchased from QPC accounted for some 25% of sales. A thriving cooperative relationship between QPC and JGC has existed since the end of the nineteen-nineties. This has enabled innovative customer applications from QPC, such as the instrument panel carrier for Mazda 3 or rear door structure for Nissan's Murano, Stagea and Infiniti FX45 models, to gain a foothold in the Japanese market via JGC's marketing organization. Further applications for the Japanese market are at the development stage.

Quadrant AG, a global leader in high-performance polymer materials in the form of semi-finished and finished products with locations in 18 countries, generates annual sales of some 700 million Swiss francs. The speciality engineering thermoplastics and composites manufactured and marketed by more than 2000 employees worldwide are superior in performance to metals and other materials and are used in a growing number of applications, primarily in the capital goods industry.

This transaction will further consolidate QPC's leading position in the global GMT market. It will secure access to Japanese OEMs and tier one suppliers and their transplants in the USA and Europe. It will also make it easier to serve the emerging Asian market outside Japan (China, Korea, Taiwan). QPC also expects a more rapid introduction of its other composite materials such as SymaLITE® and natural fibre non-wovens Loprefin®, Nafcoform® and Glascoform® in Asia.

As Volker Fritz, CEO Quadrant Plastic Composites, puts it: "The investment in JGC will benefit all our GMT customers in Japan and worldwide. Our long-standing cooperative relationship has already brought both teams close together, so JGC personnel will be in good hands with us.» According to Shigeya Oishi, Executive Vice President for Quadrant in Japan and President designate of JGC, «this growth through acquisition is an important move for Quadrant in Japan and the reward for many years of development work by the Quadrant Group in partnership with JGC and its shareholders, whereby special thanks goes to NSG".

The acquisition of JGC will provide the Quadrant Group with a third manufacturing leg in Japan – alongside its 45% stake in Nippon Polypenco (since 2001) and its 50% interest in Poly Hi Solidur Japan (since 2005) – and thus consolidate its strategic position and its standing in the world's second largest industrialized economy. Quadrant is already strongly positioned in North America and Europe, and its declared aim is also to establish correspondingly strong and durable positions in Asia in the medium term. The markets in these regions are enjoying above-average growth rates. As well as in Japan, Quadrant already has a presence in the high-performance plastics sector in Asia with manufacturing facilities in Korea and India, and its own sales offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

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