Acquisition of Management Rights to an Austrian Pipe Rehabilitation Company

SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO., LTD. (President: Naofumi Negishi, hereinafter called Sekisui Chemical) has acquired 75% of the shares in Rabmer Holding GmbH (CEO: Ulrike Rabmer Koller, hereinafter called Rabmer). As Austria's largest pipe rehabilitation company, the aims of acquiring the business rights of the company, which has many bases in Eastern Europe, are to expand the pipe rehabilitation business in the Eastern European infrastructure markets, which have shown remarkable growth, and to further evolve the value chain business. (See Note.)
Note: Value chain business: The production and supply of a full-service value chain from diagnosis to design (development), production, installation, and maintenance as a total engineering business.

1. Background

Sekisui Chemical positioned the pipe rehabilitation business as one of the "Frontier 7" high-growth fields in our Midterm Management Plan "GS21-SHINKA!" in FY2009. Sekisui Chemical is rolling out globally the value chain business from pipe survey to installation and after-sales service for this business, whose market is expanding rapidly even among the seven, based around the "SPR Method", which enables worn pipes to be rehabilitated without disturbing the ground.
In Europe, Sekisui Chemical purchased the pipe rehabilitation company Chevalier Pipe Technologies GmbH (now called SEKISUI SPR EUROPE,G.m.b.H., hereinafter called SSPRE) in July 2008 to establish a base for our pipe rehabilitation business.
In Eastern Europe, financial support such as EU funding for infrastructure formation in the new EU member states have proved a tailwind in the continuing rapid expansion of the pipe rehabilitation business, and so the acquisition of a share in Eastern Europe became our urgent business.
Sekisui Chemical has striven to expand sales by cooperating with installation partners in all areas of the Eastern European market, but for further sales expansion, the assurance of our own Sekisui Chemical bases in Eastern Europe became indispensable.

2. Purpose of Acquiring Business Rights

1) To expand orders in Eastern Europe by spreading Sekisui Chemical construction methods (SPR method) and supplying materials by using Rabmer bases.
2) The grassroots reinforcement (establishment) of the value chain system throughout all of Europe by using the survey and diagnostic business at which Rabmer excels, as well as the SSPRE materials production system and wealth of construction methods we possess.

3. Outline of the Management Rights-Acquired Business

1) Company Name: Rabmer Holding GmbH
2) Location: Bruckbachweg 23, A-4203 Altenberg bei Linz, Austria
3) Establishment Date: 1963
4) Name of Representative: CEO: Ulrike Rabmer-Koller
5) Principal Business: Pipe survey and diagnosis, and the sale and installation of pipe rehabilitation materials (cured-in-place pipe lining methods)
6) Capital: 220,000 Euros (approx. 24 million yen)
7) Number of Employees: approx. 150 (as of end of October 2011)
8) Subsidiaries: 9 companies in eight countries: Austria, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, and Slovakia
9) Sales (consolidated): approx. 20,000,000 Euros (approx. 2.2 billion yen as of December 2010)
10) Purchasing method: Purchased 75% of all shares (completed on 15th Dec.)

4. Business Objectives

To achieve sales of 4 billion yen by FY2013 by expanding orders and the value chain system in Eastern Europe.


Disclaimer

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements due to changes in global economic, business, competitive market and regulatory factors.